First time to the town centre since we got back to Larnaca and some significant changes. No actual count, but it seems that there are fewer vacant buildings and empty shops, which is obviously a good thing. There are also a number of high rise buildings under construction or promised on prominent billboards. Have much less sanguine feelings about this.
The square which has for years been home to the Saturday farmers’markets is now the site of a massive excavation, preparatory to building a new market complex incorporating shops, bars, a gallery, green space and multi-storey parking as well as outdoor market area. It does sound attractive, though one can see the gentrification and tourist appeal proceeding apace as the old balance scales (admittedly not always fairly employed) and the woman with the little stool from whom J learned how to prepare artichokes for sautéing, disappear.
The high rises present a different problem. They will certainly choke out small traditional houses and period buildings, changing the unique character of the city centre. And no doubt some of what appears charming is poorly insulated, hard to keep clean, or even unsafe. It’s easy to want to preserve quaintness on behalf of others - like admiring donkey carts without caring to be relegated to using one for transport.
But there appears to be another problem with high rises near the seafront, as recorded in the Cyprus paper. Given the frequency of earthquakes - 146 recorded in Larnaca over the past 20 years, 32 with magnitude of over 3, and four measuring over 4 - and unstable soil, it is doubtful if high rises should be built near the sea at all. A geological survey report has recommended against, so another, apparently independent, study has been commissioned. The newspaper report concludes somewhat ominously: « Despite the warnings of the geological survey department, the Larnaca municipality, which currently has eight pending applications on behalf of high-rise seafront development projects for construction permits, has remained adamant in its attempt to find ways to secure licensing ».