Wednesday, 23 December 2020

New asphalt for Jeziorki - or Dawidy?

Walking along the ulica Karczunkowska this afternoon, I noticed brand-new asphalt along the newly-named ul. Poduchowna. Looking like it had been laid earlier in the day, I ventured down it. Talking to a local resident, it was obvious what a huge improvement to life along that road the new asphalt will bring, the same sentiment I felt when neighbours in Jakubowizna expressed when contrasting life before and after the asphalt was laid down. No longer having to wade ankle deep in mud, not having to drive through potholes, this is pure civilisational progress.

Below: looking south-west towards ul. Karczunkowska.


Below: looking east along ul. Poduchowna - it's a no-through road; not even footpaths connect it with W-wa Jeziorki station, which makes this a quiet, traffic-free enclave.


Below: looking west along ul. Poduchowna, from where the asphalt ends. I felt a clear mid-century rural U.S.A. vibe here.


I have a thing about fresh asphalt - still unsullied by muddy tractor tyres; rainwater and oil on the surface, not yet absorbing. Aesthetically, road surface at its finest. I only hope it won't start cracking prematurely (yesterday it rained all day - the first time in seven weeks when I couldn't go out for a walk because of incessant rain).

Below: on the corner of Karczunkowska and Poduchowna; looks like the road-sign for the latter has been damaged by a high vehicle. The white-on-blue road names (with white-on-red district names) go back to 2002 now, part of the MSI (Miejski System Informacji - urban information system) initiative. The MSI is not just about signage, but about unifying toponyms. Older maps show this area as being called Dawidy Poduchowne, between Dawidy Bankowe and Jeziorki; now it's clearly a part of Jeziorki Południowe. Nothing to do with The X-Files actor David Duchovny. 

The 2019 edition of the Urzędowy Wykaz Nazw Miejscowości (official register of place-names) has 159 places in Poland with the suffix Poduchowne (or -na or -ny), plus another 22 with the suffix Duchowne (or -na or -ny). It denotes that the land was owned by the Church, or had formerly been owned by the Church. 

According to the UWNM, there's a Dawidy and Dawidy Bankowe (two separate villages in the gmina of Raszyn, lying just outside Warsaw's southern border) and a Dawidy Poduchowne and a Dawidy Zwykłe which are both part of Warsaw, both part of Jeziorki Południowe. Now, Dawidy Poduchowne was the name for land between the railway line and the edge of Warsaw bordering on gmina Raszyn. Dawidy Zwykłe (literally, 'the ordinary Davids') is the rarely used name distinguishing the few houses in Dawidy that lie within Warsaw's border, between the bus loop and W-wa Dawidy station on ul. Baletowa. 

If PKP were to be strictly accurate with its station-naming protocols, W-wa Dawidy should really have been called W-wa Dawidy Zwykłe, as Dawidy proper lies in the gmina of Raszyn.

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