A Short lesson on Prague's suburbs

---

I know learning- bleck! But wait, this is interesting learning. This week for my Reading Prague class (a class where we read about Prague, specific places in time and what not, then go visit them) we went to the Czech suburbs. Now, I know what you American Foreigners are thinking, suburbs, wow that sounds like outlet malls, cul de sacs and perfectly congruent houses lined up for days near large forst perserves, however; in Europe suburbs have a slightly different feel. In the states we tend to think of the inner city as the "rough" part of town and the suburbs as a safe haven, but its completely opposite in most European cities. Take the riots in Paris last year- all the hard working folk and immigrants in the suburbs were rioting cause they didn't have anything to lose really. Well, in Prague it's the same way, but it gets weirder. Because the majority of the suburbs were created during the communist regime, all the housing is huge soviet block housing. Here are some new vocabulary words for you: Panelak- a pre-fabricated concrete block that is turned into housing. Sidliste- a whole development or neighborhood of Panelaks. To Praguers today Panelak means insufficient housing conditions and ghetto. All Panelaks are huge and the ones we visited right down the street from the metro stop Haje, on the southeast side of the city house up to 70,000 people and were built in the 1970s. These apartment complexes are built in little blocks together so you have row after row of similar looking apartments. When the Soviets built them they thought they would build the a supermarket and a tavern nearby. Eventually they built an elementary school, then highschool and so on. So these complexes are out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around. People went crazy because they had to go to the center of town to do anything remotely cultural such as cinema, museum, ballet, exposition etc. The apartments are all built small and the walls around the kitchen and bathroom are made of PVC, which means you can hear your neighbors very well... eight flights up and down from you. Not exactly ideal living conditions. However, it happens to be the cheapest places to live in town. So even after communism fell, half the people didn't move out cause they couldn't afford anything more than the government embursed housing. Its about 2400 Kc. a month, that's $120, and the new immigrants to the city and the Roma (Gypsies) also find it reasonable. There are a decent amount of green spaces but during communism there was a ten o'clock curfew so even those spaces weren't enjoyed to their fullest. It was difficult to walk through the area and imagine living in one of these complexes for not just your entire life, but through generations of families. This was just one more lesson learned about what life under communism looked like here in the Czechoslovak lands.

---

Photos

Panelaks
Lots of gray...

More Housing
It looks like it stretches on forever.

This one is actually called the Great Wall of China
Because it is so massive. It has caught on fire multiple times from drug labs in people's apartments.

The next complex over
You can see in the distant the next complex of apartments. There are actually 46 sets of apartments like these all around Prague.

Comments

["Ghetto Girl"]

Panelaks
I'd recommend that you visit other areas of panelaks in the city. I am living in a panelak now (in Modrany) and find the area to be a welcome relief from the city center. Your overgeneralizations of the "ghetto" should be taken very lightly. I always think it's funny to hear views, like yours, that paint the panelaks to be such depressing, oppresive places--this view is wrong. While there are some less desirable places, these are still "homes" to a lot of people. Before you give a short lesson again, I suggest you do a little more research.

[Jenifah]

Sorry about the generalizations
I did focus on the Panelak of the communist era in my blog, so I'm sorry if anyone was offended by my comments. I have visited some nicer suburban areas in Prague, and I understand there are a lot of great places to live in the sidlistes. However, some happen to be the poorest and roughest neighborhoods here. I only meant to provide people unfamiliar with Prague on a short lesson about the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Sorry if I offended anyone.

[Panelak]

2400 Kc as a month rent in panelak was maybe some 10 years ago. Even only a 30m flat is difficult to find below 10 000 including energy and water costs. The rents are comparable to austrian Vienna now (but in Vienna one earns 3times more ;-)