Waiting for their turn

All around Vilnius, there is an extraordinary programme underway to update the Soviet housing stock to modern standards. In every neighbourhood, buildings stand wrapped in canvas and scaffold, getting the insulation, windows, plumbing and heating they so badly need. But not all houses can be done up at once, and there is still a vast collection of old pre-fab tower blocks that are in a sorry state, residents keeping their fingers crossed that they will be next on the list. In these areas – some in relatively wealthy parts of town, like this set of buildings in the posh Antakalnis neighbourhood – the state of disrepair extends all the way to the beloved basketball courts. And even when buildings have been fixed, the infrastructure around it, like roads, pedestrian walkways, playgrounds and the like, are all to often cracked and broken, way down the list of priority investments.