Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Transport and my neighbor

Driving on the stairsAs driving around in Yerevan gets even tougher (much of it due to the construction of pedestrian underpasses, the existing ones of which are unused by pedestrians, but found rather useful by folks who can't find a better place to pee) I came across an article, or more like a blurb, about continuing construction of the metro (subway). Something I've been a proponent of for years now. The article is a bit hard to understand due to the really bad English, but the jist of it is clear, there is talk about extending the metro.
"The resumption of the construction works of the Yerevan City’s Underground will eliminate the transporatation problems and settle certain ecology issues. RA MP Vladimir Badalian Believes. Hovik Abrahamian, RA Territorial Management Minister, said that the Yerevan underground construction plans will be elaborated and studied soon after the adoption of the new law "On Yerevan."
Perhaps this will eliminate scenes such as the one I took a picture of yesterday, as cars decided to drive through a park to get around the blocked roads caused by the construction of pedestrian underpasses.

Totally unrelated to transport, a neighbor finally handed over a storage space next to my apartment (which is on my deed, but not his) he had occupied shortly after I bought my place. After years of conflict, and asking for a key, and even offering to share it, I finally convinced (coerced?) him to hand it back. In the end, after all his attitude over the years and trying to use crazy-man logic on me (the people who sold him his apartment had promised him that space, not that it was theirs to give, so I should basically let him have it), and even hostility, he finally listened to my arguments and was very conciliatory in the end, which is nice.

6 Comments:

Anonymous pedro said...

there is also a funny (or maybe sad) video of the cars going through the stairs, captured by a1+ at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMaKkquIHZ8

10:12 AM  
Blogger Mariam said...

Hee-hee, I got a video of that on my website... Impressive, wasn't it? Too bad those slabs weren't meant for cars to drive over them - not only they messed up the intersection for God knows how long, but they are ruining the park at the same time.

11:02 AM  
Blogger Julia said...

That truly is a beautiful, descriptive shot. Brava Raffi.

3:59 PM  
Blogger AramK said...

http://www.a1plus.am/am/?page=issue&iid=52789

Watch also the video.

4:09 PM  
Anonymous Kevork said...

Regarding the picture, I'll be sure to show it to all the odars I meet (complete with the third world Lada's and Niva's) and say in my best Borat accent: "This a my country Hayastan. This netional highway project, built lest year by President."

I know people struggle and have hardships, but isn't there at least some desire not to *act* third world? If only just to pretend that we're not?

I really like the shot though from a photographic perspective by the way, it speaks volumes.

9:14 PM  
Anonymous rose said...

"Only in Hayastan" lol! Nice pic.

11:30 AM  

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