Reconstructing a city in the interests of its children: Tirana, Albania, 2015–2019
Author(s): Gabriel Kuris
Language: English
Erion Veliaj is the first mayor of Tirana, Albania, to be elected primarily by those born after communism. In 2015 he took charge of a youthful city – the 800,000 residents’ average age was 27 – that had endured decades of isolation under a totalitarian regime followed by unchecked growth in the 1990s that brought heavy pollution, traffic, haphazard construction, economic disparity, corruption and social strife. Veliaj faced entrenched mistrust of government after years of underinvestment in public infrastructure and human capital.