Letter from Tartu
Estonia's first city could learn a few things from its second.
With roughly a quarter of Tallinn's population and a fraction of its international and domestic transit connections, your average Tallinner would probably say that the less they hear about Tartu, the country's second largest city, the better.
Producers of a recent ETV segment seemed baffled by how Tartu's real estate prices could be 20 percent higher than Tallinn's. With almost stereotypical big city flair, they quickly pegged the higher prices to competition among the city's university students, and then devoted the rest of the two-minute piece to detailing how stinky, rotten, and just plain awful Tartu's apartments are. One smelled like dried fish, a woman complained. Some even have a shower in the kitchen, a man opined. The camera meantime panned only Tartu's ugliest of buildings to show Tallinn viewers what it's really like down there.
For me, it was telling what they didn't show. They didn't show one shot of Tartu's cozy downtown, its bustling walking streets, its open-air cafes, book stores, parks, and playgrounds. They didn't show its new shopping centers, hospitals, libraries, museums, and music shops. And they definitely wouldn't hint that for a large chunk of Tartu's population, all of this can be accessed safely and quickly on foot or by bike; no bus tickets needed. If they had shown it, the segment's producers might then have to admit that the quality of life might be in some ways higher in Tartu than in Tallinn. And could it be that Tartu is actually a nicer place to live?
The city's role as a center of education has lent it a reputation for fostering a certain Latino zest for life among its population. "What I like about Tartu is the fact that you can ride your bike from one end of it to the next and you'll run into at least six people you know, half of whom will want you to go to a pub right then and there and get drunk," a friend of mine who lives in Tallinn recently confided in me. "In Tallinn, you see 12 you know, but they all pretend like they either don't know you, or have somewhere really important they have to be."
While Tartu is known for its friendly spirit, it has developed at a slower pace than Tallinn. When I moved here three years ago, most of the new shopping centers were either unfinished or just a few years old, the new hospital was under construction, the now-renovated train station still stood in a condemned-like trance of chipped paint and graffiti, and there were no air connections, because Tartu's airport was still not open. In the past few years, the city has undergone a facelift, and - in most cases - with one ideal in mind: quality of life. Because of this development, I now have quick access to amenities that in Tallinn would always be separated by a tram or bus ride. I can also now fly from Tartu to most cities in Europe - a fact that from a foreign investor's perspective puts Estonia's two top cities on a more level playing field.
This is not to say that everything in Tartu is rosy. There has been a recent spate of xenophobic attacks against foreigners that law enforcement seems powerless to stop. City politics meanwhile have been dominated by the Reform Party for years, causing dissidents to grumble about "one-party rule." ETV's shots of ugly apartment buildings also do not lie. But Tartu is finally catching up with Tallinn and I think most would agree that a little competition would do Estonia's capital city some good.
Justin Petrone is an American journalist who lives in southern Estonia.
Editor: By Justin Petrone