When Edi Rama was elected mayor of Tirana in 2000, he had ambitious plans to transform the infrastructure and image of Albania’s capital. For half a century it had looked like most other communist-era cities, their grandiose public buildings, boulevards, and squares hiding blocks of drab, grey apartment blocks, built from prefabricated concrete.
Rama had more imagination than most politicians, perhaps because of his diverse background. He was a painter, writer, university lecturer, publicist, and former basketball player. During his decade as mayor, the existing road system was expanded, potholes filled, public transport improved, and thousands of trees planted. Those improvements were needed, but did little to change the city’s image.
Rama was a socialist, but that did not mean he bought into the everyone-has-to-live-in-an-apartment-that-looks-like-everyone-else’s ideology. His one-word solution? Paint.
Rama earned international recognition by having the facades of apartments and other buildings repainted in bright colors, what one observer described as “a continuous palette shift from lemon to lime, saffron to cinnamon and burgundy to baby blue.” OK, so some locals grumble that their city has fallen victim to a made-for-TV makeover, but it beats the hell out of gray and faded white and yellow, apparently the only colors in the communist-era palette.
On a sunny morning, I walked to the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tirana on the tree-lined boulevard along the River Lana, one of the best places to observe how Rama attempted to paint Tirana into the modern day.
The rush to color was infectious, with artists painting murals on walls, the sides of buildings and, in this case, what appeared to be the side of an electricity sub-station.
Most public buildings around the central square that honors the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu (more on him in a later essay) have been repainted in shades of red, pink and yellow. My unofficial prize for “most attractive color design” goes to the Polish embassy.
Tirana is in the middle of a construction boom. The architects of office and condo high rises have followed Rama’s color script, even if some colors look a bit garish.
Even in mid-January, the street booksellers are out in force. Every morning, they unload their stocks of second-hand editions—from textbooks to classics to pulp fiction—and every evening they pack up again. As far as I could tell, most came out of boxes that once contained bananas. Another splash of color.
And then there’s the fruit. Mandarins are in season, with fruit falling from trees on some streets. There are apples, pears, oranges, and pomegranates. At this stall in the city center, the mandarins were 80 leke (about 75 cents) a kilo. It sounds cheap, of course, but remember that incomes are significantly lower than in most European countries.
In 2004, Rama’s achievements in transforming the infrastructure and appearance of Tirana and helping turn it into a tourist destination earned him the inaugural World Mayor prize. Like the city he administered, his star was rising. For the last decade, he has served as Albania’s prime minister.
