Bucharest Mayor Spends EUR 100,000 to Study Crows Behavior

Crows research is not one of the duties of any mayor in the world, let alone Romania. Yet, Bucharest Mayor wants to spend 100,000 EUR on a study to find out why there are so many crows in Bucharest. Not in Bucharest, to be precise, but only from one of Bucharest gardens.

What is the ‘merit’ of the crows in Cismigiu Garden that they got to be studied by the City Hall?

It seems the study was voted by citizens last year. For sure, when voting for the project, Bucharest residents didn’t know the study would cost 100,000 EUR of their tax money.

The whole project has a name: “The crows from Cismigiu Garden/Our Neighbours”. Inspiring, right?

For those of you who don’t know where this park is placed in Bucharest, well..you might be surprised to find out that it is right across the City Hall. Basically, the mayor wants to pay some experts to study why the crows darken the landscape from his window when he’s in the office. Rumour has it he is nowhere to be found at the office, but who are we to judge the mayor’s efficiency?

Let the jokes aside, the crows and the pigeons make quite a mess in Bucharest’s gardens and parks. The City Hall didn’t spend money on proper devices to keep the birds out of these green areas, and the urban landscape is practically littered with bird droppings. The stench is unbearable in the summer, but not only, and the urban furniture cannot be used by the people walking in the park during summer.

Still, 100K is 100K, and now that the whole “project” got public, the residents want some explanations. When asked to reply to these accusations of mismanagement of the local budget, the City Mayor, Mr Ncusor Dan, defended his decision and told the press that 1,111 residents from Bucharest voted for the project. Notably enough, Romania’s capital has around 2 million residents.

How do they spend public money in Romania? Now you know.