I had occasion a few months back to congratulate the mayor of sector 1 in Bucharest who has organised a free rental bike scheme this year in one of the central parks. That contrasts, of course, with the appalling record of Sorin Oprescu – El Supremo of the City - who has (as befits a surgeon) laid about the old buildings of central Bucharest in true Attila the Hun style. Disregarding not only history – but laws. Here in Sofia, we have been talking very positively of the mayoress (Yordanka Fandukova) – first for the way the pavements are being slowly rescued from the cars (with bollards); and, over the week-end, for the freeing of the narrow streets from cars in the evening. One of the problems of central Sofia is the narrowness of the pavements (one-way roads also – but that keeps the speed down) but, for 3 evenings, the streets have been blocked to vehicular traffic; and tables and chairs of the bars and cafes (and kids) have spilled onto the streets. Marvellous!
Craig Murray has been on good form recently – with first a comment on the Chinese reaction to the US downgrading; then a very sensible recommendation on how to deal with the criminal banks
A year ago, I was paying tribute to Tony Judt; and blogging about the greed and incompetence of our leaders
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