Residents living in a 30-year-old, four-block site in Bahçelievler report deep cracks on the exteriors of buildings, shifts and gaps in the ground, and even small-scale collapses that create debris-like images. It has been observed that the buildings are slanted at some points, and some balconies are held up by iron supports.
Urban Transformation Process in Sites
Residents of the site say that the urban transformation process has not been initiated due to financial difficulties and past disagreements. In these sites, where rents range between 10,000 and 15,000 lira, some residents say they are still in the process of reaching an agreement with contractors and will continue to live here until the building is demolished.
Urban Transformation and Living Conditions
At a time when urban transformation projects are ongoing in Istanbul, residents of the sites in Bahçelievler have also entered the transformation process. However, some residents state that fear does not help with death, and that the uncertainty of their future and their financial situation forces them to stay where they live.
| Resident Comments |
|---|
| Jafar Sayan:“Fear is of no use in death. We will continue to sit, where will we go? Now they are giving 10 floors here, 9 and 8 floors upstairs. Out of 95 apartments, nearly 85 fall to the contractor.” |
| Hasan Ozcan:“We have been living with cracks for 10 years. We heard about it, it happened in other places too. We applied, we made an agreement with a contractor. There are 4 blocks here.” |
| Counting:“Rents here are as low as there can be without God. There is no rent below 10 thousand liras. Around 12-13 and 15 thousand. There are 22 flats in this block, if 5 people live in each house there would be close to “100 people.” |
| Ozcan:“I was the manager in 2002. I brought a professor after the earthquake. There was a storage area inside, he told us to remove it and we put it somewhere else. He told us that two of the columns were rotten and we had to “Replace them, we don’t know yet.” |
| Ozcan:“We have to, we are retired, how will we go? 80 percent of the residents are retired. The contractor said that if there are 90 flats here, he will increase it to 180, he will make our flats smaller, if we do “That, let’s accept it. We accepted it. A citizen who will live here has no money to pay.” |
