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Thabukashivi 42’s Diaries

November 30, 2005

Thabukashivi 42’s Diaries

„You can see Kartlis Deda from my place … not from the window that is, but through the cracks in the wall”, uttered an inhabitant of Thabukashvili Street 42 ironically. The historical house on Thabukashvili Street 42 is facing hard times for quite some years now. Being put on the demolition list in the 1980s due to its condition, it was saved by the inhabitants who lobbied at the Ministry of Culture to have the building listed as a cultural-historical monument, a status it received in 1988. However, instead of serving as a proud part of the city's rich historical face, the cracked facade, crumbling down ornaments and surrounding rubble give it the air of a backstreet on the eve of being 'bulldozered' away.

In some places walls and ceilings show huge cracks letting in the daylight, the structure is tilting to the side which necessitates the almost weekly readjustment of doors and windows, pipes are rotting, the ornaments on the facade crumbling and to add up to this sight, the building is surrounded by rubble.

Although the status of monument presupposes support by either the Ministry or Municipality, this has not been forthcoming. Of the more than 100 petitions sent to the Municipality by the inhabitants none received a written reply. The Ministry faces a serious shortage of funds and besides, it has to serve monuments throughout the whole country.

Nevertheless, on one fine day in spring a group of engineers arrived to bring the building back into a reasonable state. After having finished only a fraction of the job however, the funds dried up. The workers are currently patiently awaiting the Municipality’s 2006 budget. Part of the job – reinforcing the foundation as the house was literally hanging in the air – the engineers did on their own account, although this is also not completed.   

A recent development that made the patience of some inhabitants boil over was the opening of the narrow Thabukashvili Street to a constant two-way flow of 84 ‘marshrutka’ (minibus) routes after those were barred from the Rustaveli Avenue. According to inhabitants, the resulting vibrations had horrible consequences for the building’s condition. Three nightly guerilla road-blocking excursions were organized by them to the great dismay of marshrutka drivers. The last of these ended up in a row attended by television reporters.

Although relative rest has returned to the street with only 6 to 8 operating minibus routes, some inhabitants have lost trust in about everything. A theory exists that the Municipality is purposefully waiting for the house to fall down by itself, so that the central location behind the Opera could be used for a money-generating structure without having to provide inhabitants with reasonable remuneration. Still, nobody could give a coherent answer as to why the engineers then were invited in the first place. The latter regard all these ideas as paranoid and exaggerated. While maybe so, this fatalism is quite understandable after years and years of frustration.

Anyhow, the fate of the house, its inhabitants and of others in the same situation seems to depend on the Ministry’s and Municipality’s future budgetary priorities. “Instead of trying to create a decent life for citizens they put new asphalt on the Rustaveli. There was nothing wrong with the asphalt on Rustaveli! But we might end up with the roof falling on our heads, any time!” – cried one of the inhabitants overflowed by emotions.

Nikolai Pushkarev

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