Kings and Little Men

When I lived in the New York Metropolitan Area, I used to participate in a weekly poker game at the home of my friend, Brian. We took turns dealing, and when you dealt you got to call the game. There was some straight up five-card draw or seven-card stud. There were classics like Follow the Queen. There were weird ones like Lowball Chicago or Baseball with Rainouts and the Possibility of a Dome. But Brian liked to call Kings and Little Men.

I don't remember all the rules, but it was a game where unless certain things happened, the game didn't end, the pot wasn't divided, and you dealt again. So the pot could get very large and you had the potential to gain a lot of money. You could lose a lot of money too. This game really delved into the question, "how much risk are you willing to take?"

Forward to a different decade and a different continent: On Wednesday, Alrica and I went for a stroll in Lungomare. To set the stage, we are living in the city of Vlorë, Albania. And our apartment building is very near Vlorë Bay, which is a bay off the Adriatic Sea. We have a lovely view from our balcony.

The mountains, the bay, the other buildings. Ah!

But the part of Vlorë in which we find ourselves is a part of the city dedicated to living, not just enjoying the beach. You can get to the beach, just go down a block and turn down a road and you get right there. But our apartment building isn't mostly for holiday makers, it is a place where people live. I hear our upstairs neighbor practice piano each day. Sometimes the neighbors across the wall from us get into fights. I don't know what the fights are about, not because they try to be quiet, but because of my lack of Albanian language comprehension. On the ground floor (which is different than the first floor), there are businesses: a mini-market, a tobacconist, a bakery, and more like that. This is a normal building in a part of town that is meant for Albanian life. That's what Alrica and I enjoy, so it is a great place for us.

Lungomare is a section of Vlorë to the east of us. It is a broad promenade that runs along the bay. There are several beaches along it. On the other side of the promenade are hotels and tall buildings full of rental units for summer tourists. And at the ground level are restaurants and bars where you can buy meals for the price of American meals instead for the much lower prices which are typical of Albania and appear in the non-Lungomare parts of town.

Lovely woman, lovely bay

Lungomare is a lovely area, no doubt about it. The beaches are nice with plenty of lounge chairs. There are sculptures decorating the plazas. It is a delightful place to walk and enjoy the bay. But its existence suggests a different vision for what Vlorë could be.

What I love about this Coke sculpture...

...the back side are actually the nutrition lables

After World War II, Albania was led by Enver Hoxha for over forty years. He was the head of the Communist Party. Some would argue he was a Soviet puppet. But in truth, Albania went beyond that. It was more a North Korea style dictatorship. Hoxha was a big fan of Stalinism. Albania was closed to every non-Albanian. Political opponents were routinely killed. The press was run by the government. And there was an enforced public policy of atheism. You weren't allowed to be religious.

Hoxha died in 1985, and his successor continued the isolationism. But this too shall pass, and it did. Now Albania allows the free practice of religion, doesn't kill people just because they disparage the government, and is open to foreigners. It welcomes tourists. The Albanians are genuinely friendly. And the government sees tourism as an economic opportunity. After all, the Italian beaches across the Adriatic Sea do well, and Croatia, just a bit further north on the Adriatic, is Europe's new tourism darling. Albania could benefit as do its neighbors.

But at what cost? Should all of Vlorë become a longer version of Lungomare? What would be lost? I'll give you an example. Right next to the building where Alrica and I are living is a car wash. This is not exactly like the car washes in the States. This is a little bay made by a tarp overhead where men with sprayers and sponges clean cars. In fact, these car washes are very common. We saw several in Tirana as well.

Yeah, brushless, but not in the same way.

This is land right by the beach. In America, when you want to make a tourism paradise, you don't allow a couple guys to own land right by the beach where they use sponges to clean cars. And you don't see any of these popular car washes in Lungomare either.

How does a government balance the opportunity for a tourist boost to the economy with protecting what makes it uniquely itself? Does Albania's coast become a carbon copy of every other Adriatic coastal city? Or does it remain Albanian? Vlorëan?

I don't know what the right answer is. I'm glad to be seeing Vlorë now, when it has so much of its own character. But ultimately should this land on the water be for the kings or for the little men? I guess, just like poker at Brian's, the Albanian government has to decide how much it's willing to gamble.