Rahova

From Freepedia

Rahova is a neighbourhood of southwest Bucharest, situated in the 5th district (sector), west of Dâmboviţa River. It stretches from between Antiaeriană and Drumul Sării Avenues until Panduri Square (in the West), Panduri Street and 13 Septembrie Rue. in the North, George Cosbuc Ave., Viilor and Sălaj Street in the East and Bucharest City Limits in the South. Roughly, the neighbourhood is organized alongside two important avenues (13 Septembrie Ave. and Calea Rahovei, and all the streets linking them). It neighbors Drumul Taberei, The City Center (at Izvor), and Ferentari. Roughly, Rahova is situated on the Uranus and Viilor hills.

The inhabitants of the neighbourhood split it further in "zones", partially based on the naming and numbering of the block of flats (a specificity of Rahova is that house numbering and postal addressing is not done based on actual street numbers but rather on block numbers - a letter of the zone and an index number). As such, there are seven zones (east to west and north to south): Drumul Sǎrii (DS), Petre Ispirescu (P), Mārgeanului (M), Panduri, 13 Septembrie/Sebastian (S), Rahova (R) and Alexandriei (A).

According to the Local Tax Direction of The 5th District, the population of this area is around 180.000, in zones scaled from 1 to 4 (1 being the highest, 4 the lowest).

History

Rahova had for a long time a very low reputation in the eyes of many inhabitants of Bucharest, as nothing more than a slum. This was mainly because of the distance to the city (until the 1960s it was the neighbourhood furthest from the center), lack of infrastructure, and the closeness to the city jail (Rahova Penitentiary). In the early 1970s the area was also the headquarter of the infamous Barbugiu clan, the first organized crime gang to be recognized by the authorities. Calea Rahovei was also known as The Florists' Street (Drumul Florăreselor), because it was (and to some amount still is) the location of Bucharest's flower markets and flower gadens.

Recently (starting 1997) the entire neighbourhood entered a program of clean-up and modernisation in order to improve the appeal of the area. This included an upgrade in public transportation, new facades for the apartament blocks along Calea Rahovei, serious improvements in the neighbourhood highschool (including a new swimming pool) and a complete overhaul of the parks, The Flower Market (Piaţa de Flori) and Rahova Market. This was done with the support of both the Mayors of Bucharest and the Mayors of the District.

The neighbourhood shares along with Ferentari the title of the birthplace of manele music in the early 1990s. Additionally, a number of musical experiments such as Rahovian Black Metal (a mix of manele and heavy metal) and Rahovian Dance Music (a mix of manele and pop) originate here.

Transportation

Rahova is serviced by a number of public transport (RATB) lines, especially tramways (or light rail) and to a lesser extent buses. Line 32 (Light Rail Transit - Metrou Uşor) is the main line, with tramways running every minute from Rahovei Market to Unirii Square. Currently a number of tramway lines are upgraded and/or converted to Light Rail. There is no subway (Metrou) in the area, nor are there plans to build or extend the network to the area. Because of a chaotic layout of roads and streets (common for the entire city), and the presence of a belt of factories to the north of the neighbourhood (The Old Industrial Area of Trafic Greu), there are basically only three roads heading downtown (Calea Rahovei, 13 Septembrie and Drumul Sării - with no secondary streets whatsoever), all with only two lanes per way of traffic and heavy public transport. This causes severe traffic jams that can last for up to five hours daily. The only solution found was to demolish two factories and make way for a new road, but the proposal was deemed too expensive and scrapped.

Administration

As part of the 5th District, it is directly administred by the Mayor and Council of the District and by the Mayor and Council of Bucharest. Offices of mayorality exist in The Flower Market and in Rahova Market.