The sunken fountain on the City Square - the one cars damaged several times while it sat there as an expensive forgotten detail - will work again. The announcement came from Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski at a session of the City of Skopje Council, along with a whole package of promises for the city's infrastructure and culture.

The tally the mayor boasted about: over 210 drinking-water taps have been put back into service, the „Alexander the Macedonian" fountain - which hadn't worked for eight whole years - is running again, as is the „Lotus Flower" in front of the City Park. Three modern public toilets are also in preparation: in the City Park, on „Philip II" square, and by the City Square.

The bigger announcements look toward 2028, when Skopje will hold the title of European Capital of Culture: a reconstruction of the „Millenium" cinema, a renovation of the „Miladinov Brothers" city library and of the Planetarium in the Youth Cultural Center. The 2026 budget rebalance earmarks funds for urban planning, infrastructure, culture, education and the environment - plus a new fire station for faster response.

And then there's the eternal subject: the BRT project. It's „in the pre-qualification phase," the tender is „expected soon," the route won't cut through the central greenery, and completion is expected „by the end of the year." Citizens hearing this for the umpteenth time have earned the right to be skeptical - bus rapid transit in Skopje has been announced more often than snow falls in November.

To be fair: taps that run and a fountain that works after eight years are real, verifiable things - and they deserve credit. But a city's reckoning isn't measured in press releases from council sessions, it's measured in doors that open: the cinema's, the library's, the bus's. There's time until 2028. The clock, though, is already ticking.