La Mina and Jelonki

La Mina is this kind of neighborhood, that we prefer not to think of. It was designed as a solution for every day bigger amount of immigrants from less developed areas of Spain. First part of construction of low-rent housing that at those times seemed to be the best answer for problems with inhabitations of shanty town, La Mina Vieja, was finished in 1969. But 5-storey buildings proof very quickly, that it is not enough. Next step that was taken led to La Mina Nueva with 10-storey buildings.

The neighborhood has really bad opinions, it is even called ‘La Mina: district without law’. High rates of illiteracy and unemployment, poor local facilities and public resources are the best conditions for development of social depravations and high amount of crimes. Fortunately, things started to change since Consorci del Barri de La Mina has been formed, in 2000. There were plenty of actions and investments taken, many are still planned.

Warsaw does not have district that is similar to La Mina mainly because the scale of immigration is incomparably smaller. However, there are neighborhoods which cross to my mind, mainly because of similarity of 70’ and 80’ architecture. I think good example could be Jelonki – one of the first estates in Poland built in Panelák material.