Hurrah! The latest release of satellite photos of Warsaw on Google Earth is always a cause for excitement, and the latest iteration shows just how quickly Poland's capital is developing. I will focus on Jeziorki, that cool, cult, iconic, exclusive, south-south-western corner of the Hipster City Among Nations. To live here is to live the Chosen Life. [I await a feature about Jeziorki in a forthcoming edition of the
FT's monthly
How To Spend It supplement.]
Below: my immediate vicinity - note presence of new Biedronka and Lidl, adding variety, value. convenience and proximity to my retail needs. Biedronka for mature Cheddar cheese at a knock-down price, Lidl for
kiełbasa polska długodojrzewająca. And the flood retention ponds - Pozytywka and Nosal - have been deepened and enprettified. (Not even the word
remont does justice to the improvement.) Click to see both images at 100%.
 |
| August 2014 |
 |
| April 2011 |
Moving further north, Jeziorki's fabled wetlands have been tamed and are now Warsaw's largest body of standing water.What was a boggy marsh, incapable of soaking up the floodwaters that our rapidly changing climate delivers with greater frequency, has now become civilised, a lovely place for recreation and an effective sump for water running off local fields. Note the late-summer algae bloom on the middle pond.
 |
| August 2014 |
 |
| April 2011 |
Let us move north once again to see how the junction of the S2 and S79 look today, and how they looked back in April 2011. And the viaducts carrying ul. Złote Lany, Hołubocowa and Poloneza over the S2.
 |
| August 2014 |
 |
| April 2011 |
And finally, let's move north once again to look at ul. Poleczki - this time going all the way back to March 2007, just before this blog was launched, and comparing it to how it looks now. Note the doubling of Poleczki, the viaduct over the railway line, the S79, Poleczki Business Park and many other new developments. Despite all this new activity, the number of buses serving this thriving area has actually decreased since then.
 |
| August 2014 |
 |
| April 2007 |
So then. Huge progress wherever you look. Something worth considering when voting locally or nationally.
Below: dusk falls upon God's own suburb, Jeziorki.
This time last year:
Liverpool's waterfront (a city worth seeing, cheap and easy to get to from Warsaw)
No comments:
Post a Comment