Some reflections on frustraition.

Not my frustration, but the frustrations of the Yugoslav elite with transforming Zagreb. I ran across this little bit from a book I picked up last trip. It's a book about the urban problem of Zagreb as a "great city" (that is to say a large city). Now, to set it up, I have to point out that the author is writing in the mid 70s after the big Croatian national flair-up in 71. He is addressing addressing the fact that by the 1970s over 50% of the population of Zagreb was "from the village" and they had developed their (primitive, his word) pattens of living and expectations from village life before moving into the city. So, that's what sets up this couple of sentences where he criticizes the need for people to shop "with peasants" and "still at Dolac." He goes on to complain that people will take the tram all the way into town to go shop at Dolac and return home to the "periphery" with bags of stuff rather than shop at a local store as one should in an urban pattern of life.

So, what's the big deal. Well, Dolac is a market, but it's a very modern market. It was built in the 1920s to get the daily market out of Ban Jelacic square. It is, in fact, two markets. On top, is the Dolac market that all the tourists are familiar with. It is mostly fruits and vegetables and spices and stuff. But, underneath is a complete second market which is really more like a mall. All the basics of life are there. Bread, meat, vegetables. When it was opened in 1930 it was the second largest indoor market in Europe (for some reason Yugoslavia always managed to have the second largest of everything in Europe, even before Tito). The picture is one I took this summer when I was here on my first 10 day trip (which is why it is so empty, summer is vacation time and not many people stay in town). It shows about 25% of the underground part of Dolac. So, you get an idea of how big it is, and how it is set up. When it was opened, the mayor of Zagreb said that now people would be able to find all kinds of new ways to squander their money on a daily basis.

So, the frustration part is that, I don't think this pattern of life is from the village at all. It think Dolac was very much a modernization project when it was done and it remains a very important part of Zagreb city life. What the urban planners wanted for for people to give up the specifically "Zagrebian" pattern of life and shop in a "Yugoslav" way. The problem for the Yugoslav urban planners is that people were adapting to the Zagreb pattern when they moved into the city.