> > From: "frank theriault" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2008/03/19 Wed PM 10:00:35 GMT > To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <pdml@pdml.net> > Subject: Re: PESOs: a view from the top > > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 4:30 PM, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Interesting shot. I've seen stuff like that in Romania, Moscow and, > > believe it or not, Zanzibar. It's very weird to see them in a tropical > > paradise, but they were a fraternal gesture of Socialist friendship > > from the people of East Germany; the Zanzibaris were so overcome with > > gratitude they stuffed all their people into them. Horrible places. > > The area I used to live in here in Toronto is called St. Jamestown, > and it's reputed to be the most densely populated neighbourhood in the > country, with some 20,000 people on about 100 acres: > > http://pricetags.files.wordpress.com/2006/07/st-james-town.jpg > > I suspect no one really knows how many people are here, as there are > many illegal immigrants; I've also heard a "real" population of about > 24,000. About the only difference between this neighbourhood and the > Stalinist masterpieces we've been talking about is the difference in > architecture of these early-sixties monstrosities, and the fact that > they're privately owned. At least they ~were~ privately owned - most > are now owned by the city as public housing. > > I lived in one of the last three or four buildings that were still > privately owned, and they weren't bad, but the publicly-owned ones > were real slums. They sometimes went days or even weeks without hot > water (or any water at all), and the elevators (all of them!) often > broke down for days at a time - not a good thing when you live atop a > 25 storie high-rise! The hallways featured bare lightbulbs (most of > them out), filthy carpets and walls and there was a distinct odor of > stale urine and faeces in the air. Pretty icky places...
I think that says more about the people living in them than the buildings. All of the "Stalinist nightmares" that I've been invited into were clean, warm, well-looked-after homes. ----------------------------------------- Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
