From a Dump and High-Rise Plans to a 50,000-Square-Metre Park: Butel Got Its Oasis, but the Price Is Nowhere to Be Found

The space in Butel that lay neglected for years and served as a dump, and for which there were high-rise plans, is now a park of 50,000 square metres. Skopje mayor Orce Gjorgjievski and Butel mayor Darko Kostovski opened the "Butel Oasis": greenery, a square, children's corners, footpaths and fitness zones.

For Skopje, where every free plot is almost automatically seen as a future building, this is no small thing. A park instead of concrete is news worth reporting without irony. Gjorgjievski says Kostovski originally asked for a park ten times smaller and that what was promised for a four-year term has been delivered in the first year. The complex also has its own irrigation system using non-potable water.

But when two mayors cut a ribbon, some questions are owed. The press releases give no figure for what the park cost. Nor do they explain who held the high-rise plans and whether they've been formally changed. A park becomes a park when it's protected on paper too, not just opened with a speech.

And one more thing. Young trees cast no shade on opening day. The real test of any oasis comes two summers later, when you can see whether anyone is watering, cleaning and repairing it. Do the City of Skopje and the Municipality of Butel have a plan for that too, or only for the ribbon?