Preservation of Community Assets: What Happened to Sarajevo

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-and-lifestyle/2013/10/mixed-fates-sarajevos-olympic-ruins/7403

Hello Everyone:

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
travel.nationalgeographic.com

I noticed that we're 4,100 page views, that's amazing. Can we reach our year-end goal of 5,000 page views? It's only November 18 and midnight December 31 is way off in the distance, let's do this. Today is an exciting day for yours truly. Tonight, I get to go before the West Hollywood City Council and tell them why Tower Records should be saved from demolition. I plan to work the historic/cultural connection angle. If you're in the Los Angeles area and want to come and show your support, the meeting is at 6:30 p.m in council chambers located at 625 San Vicente Boulevard half a block north of Melrose Avenue. Let's show WeHo that historic preservation rocks. Today I have a short but kind of sad piece for you on the fate of the Winter Olympic city of Sarajevo, the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mark Byrnes of The Atlantic Cities discusses photographer John Pack's book The Olympic City, which documents the fate of Sarajevo with images taken by Reuters photographer Dado Ruvic. The good news is that the city, ravaged by war, is being reclaimed by the locals and brought back to life. The bad news is some of the sites are still suffering from neglect. In 1984, the city played host to the Winter Olympic games. It wasn't a particularly spectacular or noteworthy games but it was still an Olympics with all the pomp and pageantry that comes with it. The succeeding years were far from kind to the city called the "Jerusalem of Europe." The Bosnia War and years of neglect turned facilities that once show cased feats of athletic heroism into abandoned buildings, mine fields, and empty rusted out hulks.

Kosovo Stadium today
panoramio.com

Let's start with the good news first. Kosovo Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies took place, was renovated in 1998. Zetra Ice Hall was rebuilt in 1999 and Skenderija Hall, abandoned for many years, was renovated in 2006 and takes in 500,000 visitors every year. Mount Jahorina, the site of the women's Alpine skiing events, is a popular vacation site, although watch out for the occasional land mine still buried in the off-course slopes. Unfortunately, not all the former Olympic venue sites have been successfully brought back to life. Mount Trebevic, where the bobsled and luge facilities were housed, was used an artillery stronghold, with bullet holes still evident. The site is now a magnet for vandals and graffiti artists. The ski jump venue

The former bobsled and luge track
matadometork.com

on Mount Ignam is a haunting shell of its old self.

There are only eighty days left until Russia, once again, hosts an Olympic games in Sochi, now is a good time to look back at images from the 1984 Olympics and consider what happened to this one-time site of athletic glory.