That apartment building is a mere 1/2 block from Tashkent Park -- Tashkent being a former part of the USSR. My Russian neighbor once told me Tashkent - the city - is the armpit of Uzb: all industrial, all of the time. (Which immediately made me recall a profoundly ugly business trip to Syracuse, NY.)
Yikes! They were in our building! Now I don’t know if my phone is tapped, we’re bugged, and our network infiltrated. And as for the biohazard house next door? I’m thinking its derelict condition masks a bunker filled with electronic snooping equipment.
I live about half a block from Tashkent park as well, and exactly a block from this apartment. I suspect it was a coincidence; it's not like Tashkent park would give them sentimental memories of Russia or anything. It's like any other park except for the statue, and that is hardly a ponderous Lenin (speaking of which, if they were going for an ironic wink and nudge I'm sure they would've picked Fremont). It's likely they picked CH for the same reason so many other young singles and childless couples do -- easy access to downtown, bus routes, drinking and dining -- and of course blending in. Seattle folks in general aren't nosy and are unlikely to ask too many questions of neighbors doing odd things, but CH is probably the apex of that.
That Tashkent Park is odd, btw. I remember when they did the sister city thing with Tashkent in the 80s as a sort of civic defiance to the Reagan Administration; Charlie Royer (I think) went over to break ground on the corresponding Seattle Park in that city. I wasn't living on CH then and had totally forgotten about it by the time I'd moved to CH, but when I was in Uzbekistan in the 90s I was stunned to see a "Seattle Park" on a map of Tashkent until I remembered that. And then when I returned to Seattle I discovered I'd been living just a block from Tashkent Park all along. So it's quite possible to end up next to the park without knowing it.
Tashkent was a weird, weird choice as a sister city. Seattle is a maritime city on the ocean backed by forested mountains; Tashkent is a city in the middle of a continent surrounded by desert....
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eattle has a temperate climate; Tashkent's is extreme continental. Seattle is a young city founded by small groups of individuals perusing private interests without too much friction with the local tribes or oversight by government; Tashkent was an ancient city conquered by the Tsar and made a provincial capitol. We can debate how beautiful Seattle is but the word is definitely in the conversation; with Tashkent, the only debate would be about the depths of its ugliness. Really the only thing the two cities have in common is earthquakes: Tashkent was completely destroyed by one in 1966, which eliminated any charming architecture it might have once had. (Envision Renton built out of crappy soviet concrete.)
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My Russian neighbor once told me Tashkent - the city - is the armpit of Uzb: all industrial, all of the time. (Which immediately made me recall a profoundly ugly business trip to Syracuse, NY.)