Odessa

Arriving in Odessa is like a trimmed down Barcelona, all grid system and wide mature tree lined boulevards. Instant differences, though, lots of crows, for a seaside resort strange not to be intimidated by low flying Seagulls. Also, if your up early enough people gathering the newly fallen Autumn leaves and sweeping the streets, two to each street corner. Apparently large numbers of people are given a little bit of money to spend and hour or so a day to clear a little patch of street, old people, or people with other jobs to go to afterwards. This all leads to an immaculate street level environment within the city, seemingly good relations between neighbors, a little cash for those who might need it and, an awkward path to transverse between piles of leaves and rubbish, while carrying a big bag and with not much sleep from the night train just before.
This cleanliness ends at the cities edges. The inland lakes and marshlands, areas of such stunning natural beauty are strewn with rubbish of all kinds. We witnessed people dumping all sorts, an old lady appeared during one exploration with a bin full of plastic bottles over her shoulder, calmly she stepped a little way into a patch of reeds and tipped them out, right in front of us.
I could relate these to the typology of the nearby built form. A Soviet era suburb, a long procession of slightly differing housing blocks, thirteen stories high on average, with a road running out of the city and tram lines. All separated by strips of green space. Behind them slightly smaller blocks at around nine stories. Then a sharp contrast, down to private housing, some quite old, most newly built. Many different materials used, aggrandized frontages with bizarre references to classical form amongst many other styles. Seemingly the newer the house, the larger its surrounding fence, the larger the fuel capacity of its promenading car, the gaudier its architectural references.
The rubbish collection seems to still take place around the flat blocks, and everywhere little stalls selling allsorts, from spanners to cigarettes. These are particularly clustered around the various tram stops, the tram being the main course of access at the time of construction with little car ownership. Now many of the green patches down the centre of the blocks, buffering the road and tram lines as well as public walking and resting areas are taken up by tin forts with guard towers and barbed wire, storage for the locals’ cars. This is a shame as it blocks eyesight at street level across the boulevard between the blocks on either side. Patches where the original layout is retained feel more connected, more like a street, even though it is so wide.
The rubbish would have been at one time burnt in the furnaces of the centralised heating systems around the city, providing heat for the unitary blocks. Carbon output, and its associated implications for upgrading the system has pretty much stopped this.
Locations of the rubbish low-level architecture seem to correlate directly with highest levels of dumping.
We had the chance to talk to a few locals while on the trip, and especially the students of the University. Their feelings on the housing were that the old Soviet era blocks were dilapidated and ugly, yet they had lasted with little maintenance for many years and were all very much occupied. One girl talked about her newer private house, built 12 years previous, she liked it very much, though, through some pressing she did say that it was suffering itself, even with the amounts of maintenance they were willing to attribute it, doors were warped and drafty, salt ingresses through thin walls and it could get very cold in the winter. All practical considerations but what wasn’t mentioned was why the need for a security guard at the gate for the development, high fences, loud dogs, private cars, and why was there no proper route to the beach?
It was even more of a shame to see development now in the hands of large companies, building blocks at the edge of the city, beyond its previous limit, with poor access to transport, no balconies, seemingly a big no-no in Odessa and no built-in amenity spaces.