Slovany

Slovany is a neighborhood in Southeastern Plzeň. It lies entirely within Plzeň 2, and is quite walkable and dense. The boundaries that seem to fit Slovany are the railroad tracks to the north, the Radbuza and Úhlava Rivers to the west, K Starým Valům, Nepomucká, V Polích, and Na Bořích to the south, and the Úslava River to the east. Within these boundaries, a lot of different housing types can be found, and within each a different social class or family type. Closest to the railroad tracks is the oldest part of the neighborhood, where turn of the century walk up apartment buildings with grand interior staircases dominate. All kinds of people live in this section of the city, particularly couples without children and pensioners. Businesses here consist mostly of corner stores and small shops, though I did notice an Albert supermarket on Koterovská, between Plzenecká and Sladkovského. Something interesting about most buildings throughout Slovany, though, is the lack of graffiti or peeling stucco and paint on walls. Most residences and businesses were in immaculate condition! Pedestrians are clearly treated with respect in Slovany, as even major roads, such as Slovanská or Koterovská, were narrow enough to slow cars down, and could be easily crossed. After the oldest zone nearest the railroad tracks comes the zone of paneláks. This zone is probably the most diverse, and is inhabited by people of all incomes and family sizes. These apartment blocks make up the bulk of Slovany's buildings, and are quite nice. They are not the tallest paneláks in Eastern Europe, but not the shortest either, with most being between five and ten stories tall, which makes them human scaled and visually appealing. The ugly gray concrete of the buildings is painted over here, but not all of them were just painted in vertical or horizontal stripes of color like in Praha. Some had more organic patterns of color, some had diagonal stripes across the building, and one building was even painted to look like rays of a setting sun! This not only makes the buildings more visually interesting than if they were still in the original gray color, but also gives residents a sense of place. People can now say things like, "yeah, I live in the bright green one with gray diagonal stripes," instead of, "I live at 94 Koterovská". The third and final zone in Slovany is the zone of single family houses and two to three story walk up apartments that lie on the border with Černice, a district at the edge of the city. Homes here were nice looking, though more sidewalks are definitely needed. While most Slavic cities suffer from bad bicycle connections, most of Plzeň (other than Vnitřní Město) actually has a well developed network of high quality protected bike lanes that offer direct paths to many areas of the city, including Slovany. The main improvement I would make to the bike network is adding a few smaller, less elaborate, unprotected bike lanes for short rides within the neighborhood, particularly on roads that don't go towards the city center. Transit in Slovany is really good, with České Drahy providing intercity and regional service from Plzeň Hlavní Nádraží and Plzeň-Koterov. Local transportation is provided by PMDP, which operates trams, buses, and trolleybuses within Slovany, Plzeň, and most nearby villages. Frequent tram routes 1 and 2, frequent trolleybus routes 12 and 13, and frequent bus route 30 serve Slovany, as well as infrequent trolleybus routes 10 and 14, and infrequent bus routes 22, 23, 29, 31, 35, 51 and 57.

Vnitřní Město

Vnitřní Město, or "Inner City" in English, is the geographic and commercial center of Plzeň, as well as its oldest part. The city was first granted a civic charter by King Václav II in 1295, and some buildings in this part of the city are really that old. I would define Vnitřní Město s the Mže River to the north, the Radbuza River to the east, Americká to the south, and Sady Pětatřicátníků to the north. Dominating the district is the Church of Saint Bartholomew, which has the tallest spire in all of the Czech Republic. Other interesting sites include the Pilsner Beer Museum, the network of underground tunnels built in the Middle Ages for storage and shelter, the old water tower, plague column, and town hall. The small neighborhood remains fairly mixed income, and the architecture in the neighborhood is visually appealing, and each building is slightly different from the next. Businesses also vary quite a lot, as this is the commercial heart of the city. So, in addition to restaurants and cafés, shoe stores and tea shops can be found on the ground floors of buildings as well. Almost all residential buildings are older, from between the Middle Ages to the 1920s and 1930s. Of note is the fact that sidewalks here are made of very large, flat stones, instead of the more traditional cobblestone sidewalks in city centers of most other large Czech cities. The main things I would suggest would be a conservation district, if one is not already in place, to protect this part of the city's historical character, and also some bicycle improvements. A unique feature of Plzeň's Vnitřní Město is its gridded streets, which most other Czech old towns don't have. This would mean that bike improvements that were put in place on side streets would still get people to their destinations quickly and efficiently.