Our neighborhood in Jurmala is really more of a little village, separated from the rest of Jurmala by the train tracks and isolated from the rest of the world by its natural borders: the Lielupe River and several large forests. For many years, people have done what they want here. Along the river, there is a series of long, rectangular land plots, some private, some municipal. Over time, a few of these have been claimed by locals who have divided the large plots into dozens of tiny plots, each with it's own shack and yard. Within our larger village, several smaller mini-villages have sprung up. Villages of summer cabins that have grown and developed over decades. To our surprise, we walked by one day to see one of these villages completely destroyed. Checking the land records, we think that this is one of the municipal land plots. With out western point of view, we understand that ownership is an issue here but, as was explained to us, many here still live with a mentality borne of the Soviet era: if a piece of public land sits unused, the pubic will find a way to use it. What happened? What decision was made one day to result in this destruction? Where has the little village gone and what will those who called this their summer retreat do now?
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