In search of index cards (jak to bedzie po polsku???) I have been walking around our communist style neighborhood. It's like Warsaw was in March but much more attractive due to the nice weather and greenness. (Well, it's been in the 90s for 3 days, so "nice weather" is sort of hyperbole, but anyway....)
The concept was to create neighborhoods of moderate density by making big apt blocks but with lots of open space around them so that people could have light and air (as opposed to the evil capitalist cities where tenements were the rule). There are roads too but the blocks are fairly large with dead-end driveways for parking and then an extensive network of pathways. I was walking along one, thinking I shouldn't because it's not "my" building when I realized that, of course, there was no "my" in the time before, because all property was collectivized. Someone said that they've seen some "private property" signs appearing here and there. (Not specifically because of the hordes of students in this place, but just generally.)
Then, most buildings have little shops here and there in the first floor where you can buy cigarettes and pastries and drugstore-type things. Mostly shabby little places with little customer trade and not huge selection. The consensus at lunch today was that the days of such places are numbered: hypermarkets are on their way. We'll see.
I could write lots more about this, but time is short so I will make some notes so that I can post up some more observations about transitions when I return.
Posted by otto0114 at July 30, 2005 07:22 AM