Good night, friends!
I'd like to share some views of Porto... but from a different perspective. These were taken from a window of a high building and here you can have a glimpse of how some of the roofs and backyards of our city look like...
No, what you're seeing here is not a small forest. These are actually gardens from houses... a lot of these properties were left vacant decades ago and, since they are inhabitable, their owners left them to rot. So... over time, a small jungle has appeared in what used to be traditional backyards.
The houses who are occupied and with families living there have their backyards more or less maintained... but the other houses' backyards are a complete wreck. There's even a palm tree growing there! 🤭
If you're wondering why the owners left them like this... it's not because they are lazy or don't care at all. The reason is other: governmental regulations.
Since the houses are old, their plumbing and walls are a disaster. No one in their perfect mind wants to live there. The owners think it's not financially profitable to renew them so that they can rent them to a single family and they would prefer to demolish the buildings to construct apartments who could house more people.
But... the government doesn't allow it. The owners can't demolish the buildings unless they are deemed unsalvageable by the city hall. So... they wait... and wait... and wait... until the houses are completely wrecked by the passage of time and weather.
Eventually, those buildings are considered too unsafe and a security hazard and that's when the property owners have the green light to tear them down and make apartments like the ones you see in the photo below.
Many of these properties end up being a financial loss for their owners... and the ones who end up benefiting from them are their sons and grandsons, many years after the original owners died of old age. 🙄
These lands were supposed to be investments... and they become a financial problem for the people who buy them. This is not good for them nor for the city inhabitants, who have to wait until the city hall allows these properties to be usable again. Until that happens, they are an eye sore and a perfect environment for all kinds of animals to propagate... mostly rats. 😖
A little government is needed or else it would be an anarchy... I understand that. But some laws are just too restrictive and end up doing more damage than good. Maybe it's time to update these laws, so that the owners of such terrains can decide on their future instead of having to wait for 50 or 100 years to pass by, so they can use them again...? 🤔
| Location | Porto - Portugal |
| Camera | Microsoft Lumia 950 XL |
| Photos | 4 (Edited with GIMP) |
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 8/32)
Thank you very much for the support! 🤗
You are welcome! Beautiful photos but such a sad story. Too bad there is not a middle ground solution to be found.
I don't see any active post from you... so here's an upvote for your support! ☺️
Thank you! Yeah, I have been in a bit of a posting slump lately. Been letting real life get me down too much, hoping to shake it off soon and get back in the game. 😀
Nature always wins but in this case it certainly isn't benefiting the city or the property owners.
Yeah, some parts of the city are getting ridiculous. 😐
Thanks for your support!
High resolution my friend, If u photographed it on pixel, it was better 💪😉
You mean Pixel Google? I never tried it... but this phone has a really nice camera! I was always happy with its photos! 😎
Thanks for your visit and comment!
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They should work out a solution that works for both parties. This is a loss for everyone, anything but smart.
You know how it is... laws get made, they fail to work... and decades or centuries go by before they are changed again. 😐
Thanks for your visit and comment.
Down the street from me, the old university hospital was abandoned for years because they built a new one on a new campus with more room in the suburbs. It sat empty for years, accumulating mice and foxes and coyotes and everything. There were three other hospitals (now two) nearby - I worked at one, and one night there were baby foxes in a coworker's truck bed. I assume they were living at the abandoned buildings, since we are smack in the middle of the city and nowhere near actual wild terrain (we are also near the big city park, so they maybe hunted geese there, lol).
Eventually they started tearing them down and putting up overpriced mixed-use buildings. They're almost done now but not quite. But when they first started? Alllllllll the neighboring buildings got inundated with mice who were suddenly fleeing the demolition. The super of my building and I were chatting one day and she said she saw down the street a LITERAL PILE of dead mice that I guess they had poisoned and swept out before they started on some new building.
Wildlife will ALWAYS take over.
Jeez... that sounds like a plot for a horror movie. 😖
Thanks for your visit and comment.
Honestly, I'd love for a bit of greenery in the urban jungle, but as you say, if all this forestation leads to rodents wreaking havoc on nearby buildings, then it should be torn down, or at least given the option to tear them down. Not only does it make the land more productively used, but it should be financially beneficial to a lot of people, as well. 💸
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Yeah, these laws are a trouble... instead of doing good they end up creating all sorts of chaos.
Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers, and thanks for sharing your lovely city. I would never have learned about Porto, otherwise :-D
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That's pretty cool - I really thought it was some kind of forest because it seems to be pretty dense :)
It's almost a forest now... 🤭
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi friend @trincowski
Although that jungle in the middle of the city looks beautiful, it is true that if it is not cared for, it represents a risk of diseases from the animals that stay there. Also, as you say, it is better to modify the laws to allow the construction of new buildings in those places.
Excellent post.
A hug
Yes, these laws are outdated and they have never worked as intended... it would be better to rethink them. 🙄
Thanks for dropping by!
Interesting but Ukraine is kinda similar to this cityscape...
Many abandoned houses and backyards, as well? 🙄
Yay!
Your post has been boosted with Ecency Points. Keep up the good work!
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Thanks... why are you muted in this community?