Old Tiflis and Modern Tbilisi – A Controversial Metamorphosis

Georgia (the country, not the state) had been on my bucket list of travel destinations for many, many years before I developed the chutzpah to buy a ticket there.  When David and I were looking into places to travel this past December and January, we knew we wanted a more “difficult” vacation – that is, one that wasn’t relaxation focused.  We had recharged on the idyllic beaches of Little Corn Island the past March, and were ready for a real adventure.  So, as I do for every trip, I started obsessively watching plane fares, and when I found a cheap ticket to Istanbul, an easy hop away from the South Caucasus, I knew it was time to check Georgia off my list.

We ended up visiting Istanbul, Turkey, followed by various locations throughout Georgia and Armenia.  I had trepidation about visiting Georgia – none security related, mind you.  I was worried about what David and I were going to find wandering the streets of Tbilisi.  I had read several articles about the speed of development in Georgia’s capital, and how locals were concerned about preservation of architecture throughout the city’s charming (un understatement, if I’ve ever written one) old town.  Essentially, the powers that be in Tbilisi started rebuilding many parts of the old town to make it more appealing for foreign tourists, and the result is a loss of the old-style character of the area.  Fellow bloggers have articulated the issue better than I have, so I highly recommend you head over to Yomadic or Kami & The Rest of the World to check out their summaries of the issue.

Or, you know, the New York freakin’ Times.

Nonetheless, I was concerned that this place on my bucket list had been prematurely “ruined” before I’d had a chance to visit it.  Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed when I traveled there, and I would leap at the opportunity to travel there tomorrow if I could.  Alas, my power point decks aren’t going to write themselves.  If you’ve reach much of my stuff, you know I am a sucker for architecture, and Tbilisi offered me some brutalist concrete (as in, the material) gems and traditional houses that made me GAG, honey.

I think the bigger question at hand is one of maintaining/preserving culture in a place while still striving for economic development and forward progress.  I don’t claim to know a whole lot about Georgian politics, but I do know that battling factions in the city are quick to degrade the others, and many politicians (mostly those not aligned with Saakashvili, the former – now deposed – president of Georgia until 2013) are quick to disparage the city’s facelift.  But, in a nation that once boasted the highest unemployment rates (as well has highest rates of educational attainment), are the jobs created to build these fantastical buildings (like the Peace “Maxi Pad” bridge, or the numerous ultra modern Public Service Halls throughout the nation, or even the McDonald’s in Batumi) not positive things?  And while I love love love traditional architecture, who’s to say this style isn’t valid in its own right?

I’m not saying I like these new buildings.  I don’t.  They remind me of what is happening all over the world in emerging and longstanding urban centers.  Hell, in my hometown of Seattle, the sketchier areas of town around downtown are being rebuilt from the ground up to make room for corporate megalodons like Amazon and destroying the old warehouses and character full brick apartment buildings that used to be the only affordable places to live in the city.  Urban reclamation and gentrification is a sad, unfortunate thing, but I don’t think we can expect cities to hold back their development for the sake of precious memories of a lost past.

Now that I’m done defending the Disney-fication of Tbilisi, I encourage you to GO NOW.  Yomadic and Kami wrote their pieces on the sterilization/modernization of Tbilisi in 2013, and I was there over New Years of 2015.  I fully believe that the pace at which things are changing is rapid, and the charm that people clamor on about is disappearing in favor of the modern.  Getting to Tbilisi is relatively easy  (it only took me 33 hours to fly home from there! Frowny face…), and reachable by several low cost carriers, like Air Baltic (from Riga), AtlasJet (from Istanbul) or Wizz Air (technically Wizz Air flies into Kutaisi – a few hours west of Tbilisi).  There are also direct flights there from Munich on Lufthansa, and from Istanbul on Turkish Airlines.