As promised yesterday, more decay. This is right on the beach in Jurmala, up a grand staircase on top of the dunes. The thing that baffles me is that during the summer, Jurmala is a pretty hopping place - tons of visitors to the beach and the town. And yet there aren't a whole ton of options right on the beach for eating/drinking/sleeping. So how can the huge, mostly developed property like this, of which there are many, remain abandoned? It is nearly impossible for anyone except the extraordinarily well-connected to get permission to do any construction in the protected "dune area" lining Latvia's seashores. But surely this property's environmental value at this point is already zero (or worse), and there is clearly a more productive use for this land.
Much of Riga has problems with large buildings that were essentially divvied up as condos when everything was re-privatized after independence. So it takes just one hold-out to prevent redevelopment of a huge, and potentially extremely valuable, property. This could be the same case along the beach in Jurmala - but I don't think these buildings were apartments in the first place.
Sadly, we're nearing departure, and some mysteries of Latvia will surely remain unanswered.
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It's Friday, and that means that the Two Month Blogiversary of the Weekly State Department Blog Roundup is up - and you're on it!
Here is the link:
http://bit.ly/aZJeOz
(If I quoted your text or used your photo(s) and you would rather I had not, please let me know. Please also be sure to check the link(s) that I put up to you, in order to verify that they work properly. If you would rather that I had not referenced you, and/or do not want me to reference you in the future, please also contact me.)
Thanks!
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