Tuesday 23 July 2013

Brussels: To Get Even Uglier?

The Brussels administration appears to have given up on Place Jean Rey.

The fountains are not working - in the summer the local kids like to play in the fountains and goodness knows a bit of cool spray would be welcome at the moment. The drinking fountains have not worked for about 3 years, and the square is overgrown with weeds.

Its a shame. Its not the prettiest of public spaces, but there is so little of those in the district that it is a welcome diversion from all the high rise apartment blocks and expensive hotels that are going up in the area.

Ahhh.... of course!

And so I expect that we will see work start soon on the little square. Incidentally, the car park you can see at the top left of the picture is gone. In its place stands a ghastly looking high rise that is nearing completion. The small green space to the right of the red brick building is home to apartments and shops that are also nearing completion.

Brussels is effectively a giant building site floating on a sea of public subsidy. Given that the country is technically bankrupt, one has to wonder which public we are talking about here.

Isn't the EU wonderful?

No comments:

Post a Comment