Saturday 28 November 2009

Between ul. Sarabandy and Farbiarska

On the eastern edges of Jeziorki, where it meets Dąbrówka, there's a small pond ( 52° 7'14.00"N, 21° 0'34.00"E) which used to be surrounded by fields, but which is now being encroached by houses. I wonder how much longer it will be possible to walk freely across from ul. Sarabandy to ul. Farbiarska.

Once upon a time, ul. Farbiarska had little roads running off it with houses addressed A to H or A to K as suffixes to a number on Farbiarska. Today these roads have their own names - ul. Czysta, ul. Głęboka, ul. Ługi. This makes more sense. But as the plots between houses fill up, so ancient rights of way disappear. Right of way has never been as sacrosant in Poland as it is in Britain. In the UK, public footpaths yield with difficulty to the advancing tide of development. But here, where rights of way have never been clearly demarcated, they can disappear just like that. A path between ul. Dumki and ul. Sarabandy, for example, has been cut by a fence and a building plot. Your family may have used it for generations, but now it's gone.

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