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  Cosmopolitan young people restless for more freedom, cleaner air By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer -- September 7, 1998
KOSICE, Slovakia -- This city of 250,000, industrial and cosmopolitan, is politically, socially and environmentally light years ahead of the tiny rural villages around it. Tourists from Germany, Poland and Hungary stroll Kosice's bustling cobblestone square, visit shops, gab over pivo (beer) under the umbrellas of sidewalk cafes, watch a new fountain's sparkling spray, dance to classical music, tour museums and the finest cathedral in the republic. Less than 50 kilometers to the north, farmers hand cut grass and use pitchforks to build traditional Slovak hollow-centered haystacks. Such geographic time travel has given Kosice's young people both optimism and frustration. Modern democracy is a priority, a way to progress, a path to the good life. But nearly 10 years after the fall of communism, many are restless and impatient. "Surely we have hope for the future," said Martina Gudova, 22, an administrative assistant at the citizens organization People and Water. "But we are disappointed in the present because of the events of the last 10 years." Economically, the Slovak currency is weak and unemployment in and around Kosice is nudging 20 percent. Many people who migrated to this city in the 1950s and 1960s to work in its factories live on its outskirts, in the communist era's architecturally unfortunate apartment towers, called "mono-blocks," where the only signs of prosperity are the television satellite dishes sprouting from balconies like mushrooms on an old rotting log. Politically there is growing dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, who has consolidated power in the central government and established closer ties with Russia. There is an election scheduled this fall. "If Meciar wins again we only hope we will survive," Gudova said. But Kosice is a city of contradictions, where the distance between survive and thrive is covered by a walk from the mono-blocks to Kosice's downtown. An enlightened renaissance policy has emphasized old world charm in refurbishing a 12-block-long pedestrian square where shops, restaurants and bars with pastel colored Baroque and Neoclassical facades are ever busy. Stara babas, older women in traditional long-sleeved blouses and long skirts, hurry through on market days, visiting well-stocked meat markets and groceries. They mingle with the tourists and younger local women - pekna babas - who parade in mini-skirts and platform heels. Western influence is also in evidence on the city's fringe at the steelworks of VSZ, a.s., where Pittsburgh-based USX is a partner in a new facility that will produce 200,000 metric tons of tin-plated steel for food cans. The process will employ a level of modern environmental controls not seen during the more than 40 years of communist rule. A cleaner steel industry would be a welcome change, said Robert Zvara, a 26-year-old architect, with a taste for fine pilsner and American jazz. "The state has made little progress on the environment. There is still air pollution east of Kosice from our mills. The politicians say everything is clean, that we're meeting standards, but it is not the truth." Zvara said the government is missing opportunities to improve the environment by opposing grass-roots-efforts. "The government is moving away from Western democracy and toward Russia," he said. "It needs to be more open to alternatives that will benefit all the people. Right now, I think it is on the wrong path."
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