Two more years.....?

Yordanka Fandakova has promised to rid Sofia of half it's stray dogs if she is re-elected in the forthcoming mayoral elections. This is good news. The only question is what has she been doing about the stray dog problem during the last two years of her tenure? While past performance is no guarantee of future performance (in this case let's hope not), we are not filled with any sense of optimism by Fandakova's latest promise. Let's hope her bite is a little more impressive than her bark?

Yordanka also said that stray dogs represented one of Sofia's greatest problems. Well, you could have fooled me! I might have been wrong, but I thought the murder of Yana Krateva in the dimly lit Borisova Gradina Park would have ranked pretty high on her list of Sofia's problems. Or perhaps the abysmal state of some of Sofia's parks (take a stroll around the public urinal that is the Doctor's Garden monument for example) should be an embarrassment for any city. Better still, try take a stroll on any of Sofia's third world footpaths if you are feeling adventurous or, if you really want to test your patience, try it with a child's buggy. Should be an Olympic event, if you ask me.

The abysmal failure of the city to promote Sofia as a significant European weekend tourist destination obviously does not feature on the Mayor's radar either. Well.....it should. Sofia is a city which is unwelcoming and intolerant of foreign tourists (only one tourist information centre buried deep in a subway well out of harm's way? And while I'm on the subject why is the very same information centre promoting Serbia as a tourist destination?).

By the time Sofia's hapless tourists navigate the non existent pedestrianised streets, the 2 metre deep potholes, crazy paving, dog shit, poorly lit streets and the beautiful black and white traffic bollards which adorn every street they must be exhausted and probably seriously injured! As they make their way to the airport they can still look forward to being ripped-off by one of the city's cheeky-chappy taxi drivers.

But at least they don't have to cycle on the non-existent cycleways and dice with death with Sofia's psychopathic Mercedes drivers while the ever vigilant and overweight KAT officers grab a coffee and doughnut at the nearest OMV. Nor, presumably, do they have to wait for 7 weeks for hot water while Sofia Water continue to mis-manage the supply of water to the city. We could also mention the C word (no, not that C!) but what's the point?

We look forward to another two years of the current Mayor. At least, when she leaves, the stray dog population will be back to where it was when she first came to power!