Young Romanian starts protest against snow removal idleness, cleaning up Bucharest sidewalks

A Romanian student has started to remove the snow by himself in several areas of Bucharest, after seeing the poor job the authorities had done in cleaning up the sidewalks. Iulian Pralea has been removing snow from Bucharest sidewalk since January 27, and his initiative attracted a few others as well. Another similar initiative born on the internet gathered young people at the Universitate, removing the snow until City Hall representatives came and took over. Last week, when the Romanian capital was covered by the first serious snow of the season, young Iulian bought a shovel and started removing snow from a sidewalk in Grozavesti, the area where he lives in a student dormitory. He then advanced more downtown Bucharest, and posted pictures of the areas he cleaned on a Facebook page dedicated to his initiative. On the first evening, he stayed until 3am to remove the snow, and many passersby wondered why he was doing this on a voluntary basis. The 22-year old Romanian, who comes from the city of Roman, in North – Eastern Romania, is an MA student at the Philosophy Faculty in Bucharest. He has done this not just to clean up areas for his fellow citizens, but also as a protest to the indifference of people when they see the authorities are not doing their job. So far, the young protester removed the snow in the central Unirii area, at the National Opera, in Eroilor area and at the Radio House, among others. Not knowing for how long he can go on, as after the exam session and a short holiday he will re-start classes, Iulian says it is not a shame to step in and do the authorities' job when they are not doing it. As for the authorities, his message is to think about the pedestrians as well, not just about car traffic, and to remove the snow from the sidewalks as well. By law, Romanians are required to remove the snow in front of their house or block, while firms have to remove snow in front of their headquarters or their shops. But many Bucharest sidewalks fall in none of the above categories, hence they continue to be blocked by snow until spring takes over. editor@romania-insider.com