Judging Mr Guział by his works

The local government elections are not till 16 November. And yet, for the past few weeks, the innocent, juvenile face of Piotr Guział, mayor of the Warsaw district of Ursynów, has been staring down on the capital's voters. For Mr Guział has ambitions to replace Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz as prezydent miasta (mayor) of Warsaw.

So I welcomed the opportunity (thank you Neighbour for the reminder) to pop by the school on ul. Kajakowa on my way home for a public meeting with Mr Guział about matters pertinent to Jeziorki (and indeed the whole of Zielony Ursynów, the part of the district to the west of ul. Puławska).

Impressions? Rather than the angelic youth beaming down upon the people of Warsaw, an older, street-fighting political operator, in his element among a crowd of disgruntled voters. Educated at SGH (Warsaw School of Economics) where he majored in local government finance, the 39 year-old has spent his life in public administration and local politics. A man of the Left, he drifted in and out of several left-wing formations before allying himself and his localist Nasz Ursynów group with PiS (Law and Justice) in attempting to oust Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz last October.

Positives - Mr Guział knows his patch. Whatever street was mentioned by people at the meeting - he knew where it was, and what the issue was. Very good grasp of detail.

Negatives - Mr Guział is not the best orator I've listened to; his diction is garbled, telescoping one word into the next. But above all, it's spychotechnika or buck-passing. While we understand that sewers are the responsibility of MPWiK, buses of ZTM, main roads of ZDM etc, he should be more proactive in supporting local residents in their fights to get good drainage and roads.

[Sadly, I wrote a longer post but I must have pressed the wrong key, because when I returned to this page, the second half had disappeared; I don't have time this morning to recreate it. Suffice to say I'll vote for Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz again in November on the basis of the vast improvement the city's enjoyed on her watch. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.]

Follow-up Friday 11 July, 9:30am. Less than two weeks after this meeting, Mr Guział honoured his promise to visit residents of ul. Achillesa about asphalting the two bits of ul. Nawłocka together.

Click here for an account of this meeting in Polish from the Halo Ursynów website

This time last year:
Communication breakdown

This time two years ago:
Getting ready for the opening of Modlin airport
[Amazing to recall that it opened, closed for nearly a year, and has been functioning normally since last October...]

This time seven years ago:
Maybugs in July - a plague of cockchaffers