The mayor will declare a property legal in exchange for a land tax and payment for electricity stolen from the national grid and for water. But that is only a beginning. Starvation in the countryside, after the collapse of collective farms and of the banks in the pyramid-selling scandal of 1997, led to a rush to the towns. Tirana's population increased from 280,000 in 1990 to an estimated 750,000 now - about a third of the nation. There is no sewerage system and water purification plants cannot cope.
Foreign investment is needed.
No one stops at a red light, but we need boundaries to our behaviour. We need a city plan. People lacked a sense of belonging to a community, because even the word brought back memories of communism. A whole vocabulary of words like solidarity and volunteering cannot be used because they label you a communist. We have to restore civic pride so people just do not throw rubbish out of the nearest window.