Blokovi
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Blokovi (Serbian Cyrillic: Блокови) (English: blocks) is a semi-formal name referring to the City of Belgrade's urban neighborhood located in its municipality of Novi Beograd.
The neighborhood is located in the southeastern urbanized section of the Novi Beograd municipality, on the left bank of the Sava river, across the islands of Ada Međica and Ada Ciganlija. It is bounded by the neighborhoods of Bežanija and Bežanijska Kosa from the north, Block 58 from the southeast (neighborhood of Savski Nasip) and the neighborhood of Dr Ivan Ribar from the west.
When construction of Novi Beograd began in 1948, the area designed for the future urban expansion was divided in 72 blocks (with several sub-blocks, like 8-a, 9-a, 9-b, 70-a, etc). Not having any specific name like most other parts of the newly built Novi Beograd, over time, this area became colloquially known simply as Blokovi, which is Serbian for blocks.
The population of the local communities which mainly form the neighborhood was 89,561, including the neighborhood of Dr Ivan Ribar. But the boundaries of the Blokovi neighborhood are very informal and roughly can be divided into two sections separated by the Jurija Gagarina street: the north part or, so called Bežanijski (Oficirski) Blokovi (Bežanija Blocks) with a population of 44,505 and the south part or Savski Blokovi (Sava (river) Blocks) with a population of 45,056 in 2002.
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[edit] Savski Blokovi
[edit] Characteristics
The neighborhood is notorious for its rows of over hundred of the same, grey, visually unattractive residential buildings, especially blocks 45 and 70 with two sets of 21 (total 42) identical skyscrapers close to river, and two sets of over 40 (total 80) identical buildings close to the Jurija Gagarina street. The area close to the river is continuous embankment on the bank of the Sava river, stretching throughout the whole neighborhood.
The rows of two-story and 4-story buildings in Block 70 and Block 45 are also know as "Naselje Sunca" (or, in English, "The Sunny Community." The name was used as a marketing catch by the construction firm that constructed the Block in 1974. Its inhabitants had a large number of artists and intellectuals, though structure of population has changed a bit since the 70s.
The Omladinskih brigada street divides Block 70-a from Block 70, Gandijeva street Block 70 from Block 44 and Nehruova street Block 44 from Block 45. Through the middle of the whole neighborhood curves the Lazaro Kardenas promenade.
[edit] Economy and transportation
The neighborhood is entirely residential, without any industrial facilities. Commercial sector began to develop alongside the Jurija Gagarina street in the 1990s and especially expanded in 2000s.
Major commercial or social facilities (almost all of them on the Jurija Gagarina street) comprise:
- Block 70-a: Delta-auto car dealership, large Honda car dealership, Lukoil gas station and the Omega-beton gravel selling facility on the Sava bank;
- Block 70: several shopping malls including Chinese one, OMV gas station and large postal facilities (including two separate post offices); it also has a primary school "20. Oktobar", kindergarten and its own local community (Serbian: mesna zajednica) of Savski Kej.
- Block 44: green market, several shopping malls including one of the first modern super-malls in Belgrade, the Piramida (Serbian for pyramid, because of its shape) and McDonalds restaurant; it also has two medical clinics.
- Block 45: four shopping malls, including "Enjub"; it also has a primary school Branko Radičević, kindergarten, nursery, FK Sava's soccer field and its own local community of Sava.
Routes of the public transportation lines pass through all of the streets in the neighborhood: bus lines 45, 68, 73, 76, 82, 94 and 610 and tramway lines 7, 9 and 11.
[edit] Aqua park Belgrade
Block 44 is currently the construction site of the Aqua-park Belgrade, first water park in Serbia. Construction began in 2005 and it was supposed to be open on May 25, 2006, but as of August 2006 only 75% of the rough works have been completed. It covers an area of 5 hectares and it is suppose to have 11 pools and 21 water slides. Investors claim it will be open for the 2007 season and it would feature the longest family waterslide (132 meters) and lazy river (405 meters) in Europe. Also, apart from an open area, it will have covered pools, bowling alleys and skating rink.
[edit] Bežanijski (Oficirski) Blokovi
[edit] Characteristics
Bežanijski Blokovi are build on the southernmost uninhabited area of the former Bežanija village, thus the name. However, it is completely urbanized and even though different architecturally from the southern section, it also features a series of residential skyscrapers in two parallel rows, stretching through the blocks 61, 62, 63 and the western section of 64. There are over 50 skyscrapers altogether (22 parallel ones with several additional in between).
Bežanijski Blokovi are also known as "Oficirski Blokovi" (or, in English, "The Officers' Blocks", since a large portion of the apartments in the buildings were owned by the old Yugoslav army, which housed its personnel there. Consequently, a large portion of the inhabitants of the Bežanijski Blokovi are the families of the retired army officers who bought out their apartments from the Army.
Southern border marks the Jurija Gagarina street while the northern, separating it from Bežanija is the Vojvođanska street. In between, the Dušana Vukasovića street divides Blocks 61 and 62, the Nehruova street Blocks 62 and 63 and the Gandijeva street divides Blocks 63 and 64.
[edit] Economy and transportation
Despite being constructed as a continuation of the highly industrialized central section of Novi Beograd from the east (heavy industry like IMT, Minel, FOB-FOM, etc), the neighborhood is entirely residential with commercial facilities developing only recently. Major commercial and social facilities include:
- Block 61: a kindergarten, a gas station Sunce (Serbian for sun) and a local community of Bežanijski Blokovi.
- Block 62: an ice skating rink with a gym and a primary school of Užička Republika,
- Block 63: Maxi Diskont megastore, gas station "EMG", tennis court, it also has a primary school Jovan Sterija Popović.
- Block 64: Immo Centar shopping mall, a primary school and a local community both under the name of Mladost (Serbian for youth).
In addition to other bus lines, additional lines passing through or around the neighborhood are 95 (right through the middle), 71, 72, 601 and 610.
[edit] Neighbourhood culture and public image
Blokovi inhabitants represent the cross-section of the Serbian population. Because most people in Blokovi received their apartments through government-funded social programs, the population is very socio-economically mixed: it is not uncommon to have a bus driver living next door to a neurosurgeon in the same apartment block.
The blocks near the Sava river, especially the four and two story buildings, were inhabited by a large number of artists and intellectuals in the 1970s. The neighbourhood is peaceful and ideal for young children, with many playgrounds and a popular boardwalk built along Sava's left bank.
On the other hand, the overcrowding of the apartment blocks, especially the officer blocks, and their grayness and drabness have earned Blokovi the reputation of some sort of urban ghetto. This image was perpetuated by recent Serbian movies such as Rane, Apsolutnih sto, Jedan na Jedan, Sutra ujutro, and Sedam i po.
From the reasons above, the inhabitants of Blokovi seem to have a love-hate relationship with their ambiance. For example, a locally famous graffiti from Block 70 spoofs a well-known Serbian children song in the following way:
Cvece je ukras baste, // Leptir je ukras cveta, // A deca puna gandze, // Deca su ukras geta.
