The following are strictly personal views/observations and in no way reflect the views of the Peace Corp nor the federal government of the United States.
The difference between housing standards in Moldova and America are staggering. In Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, the majority of the city dwelling population reside in apartment buildings; therefore, there is a tremendous number of apartment buildings in the city.
However, the vast majority of these buildings are in abysmal condition. The façade of an apartment building considered to be good quality by Chisinau standards, appears to be in worse condition than most city projects in America. The average apartment building in Chisinau would make the projects of New York City look like upscale housing.
The inside of the apartments contained in the building are quite lovely and homey. However, to judge the building solely on its exterior, I would surmise that a crack head would probably have reservations about sleeping there.
Most of the apartment buildings are in the vicinity of thirteen stories. The stairwells are totally unlit and smell of cat urine to a degree that it stings the nostrils, and about half the windows in the stairwell areas are broken out. Elevators in these apartments are almost nonexistent and even when they are present they are usually out of order. I do not know for certain, but I think it is a safe assumption that there are no evacuation routes out of the building in case of fire.
The reason for this poor external building upkeep is that people in Moldova do not rent their apartments, they own them. Thus, there is no landlord to manage basic building upkeep and none of the individual apartment owners are charitable enough to handle the general building maintenance. If maintenance or renovations are made by an apartment owner, the work occurs only inside that person’s apartment.
The ownership of apartments dates back to Soviet times. Most of the apartments owned by Moldavians are the apartments they were given as housing during the Soviet period.
The difference between housing standards in Moldova and America are staggering. In Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, the majority of the city dwelling population reside in apartment buildings; therefore, there is a tremendous number of apartment buildings in the city.
However, the vast majority of these buildings are in abysmal condition. The façade of an apartment building considered to be good quality by Chisinau standards, appears to be in worse condition than most city projects in America. The average apartment building in Chisinau would make the projects of New York City look like upscale housing.
The inside of the apartments contained in the building are quite lovely and homey. However, to judge the building solely on its exterior, I would surmise that a crack head would probably have reservations about sleeping there.
Most of the apartment buildings are in the vicinity of thirteen stories. The stairwells are totally unlit and smell of cat urine to a degree that it stings the nostrils, and about half the windows in the stairwell areas are broken out. Elevators in these apartments are almost nonexistent and even when they are present they are usually out of order. I do not know for certain, but I think it is a safe assumption that there are no evacuation routes out of the building in case of fire.
The reason for this poor external building upkeep is that people in Moldova do not rent their apartments, they own them. Thus, there is no landlord to manage basic building upkeep and none of the individual apartment owners are charitable enough to handle the general building maintenance. If maintenance or renovations are made by an apartment owner, the work occurs only inside that person’s apartment.
The ownership of apartments dates back to Soviet times. Most of the apartments owned by Moldavians are the apartments they were given as housing during the Soviet period.
posted by Klharmon | 8:21 AM
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