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Urban transformation in the postsocialist Global East was heavily determined by the mass privatization of state assets and by a dramatic increase in car ownership. Tbilisi, Georgia, has experienced these significant changes. The upsurge in private vehicle ownership was brought about by failing public transit, ineffective planning, suspended vehicle quality control and greater individualism. The problem has been exacerbated on two fronts in Tbilisi: new buildings built since the 1990s are now consuming former open spaces, while more people seek parking for their cars in the few crowded remaining areas leading to competition for parking space. Households of residential buildings are devising strategies for guarding nearby areas suitable for parking, while non-driving residents are at a loss to use these formerly open spaces for other purposes. Barriers are installed by the car-owning residents of apartment blocks to impose the primary function of parking to shared residential courtyards, an understudied communal space, turning them into part of the city's automobility system. The article relies on data from in-depth interviews with city officials and residents of affected areas, policy documents and field observations from the districts of Tbilisi most affected by such change. It argues that the changes started with the privatization of urban space and followed by an increase in the dominance of the automobile in Tbilisi have led to the rapid modification and deterioration of collective areas of multistory apartment blocks and created factors that are transforming courtyards from leisure space into the part of Tbilisi's automobility system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ten-line cable car network of Tbilisi, Georgia, constructed by the Soviet government between 1953 to 1988, then decommissioned in the 1990s after independence and partially reactivated since 2012. During the Soviet era, Tbilisi's cable cars played an important role in the city's mass mobility, particularly in areas of steep geography. They also functioned ideologically, supporting Soviet ambitions toward public transportation and access to recreational space for the working proletariat. We argue that today's aerial network reflects new state ideological goals where cable cars lure global capital and facilitate the tourism commodification of Tbilisi's historic Old City. Tbilisi's cable car network can, therefore, be understood as embodying changes in government stances toward labor, leisure, and the direction of future development, while further reflecting the mobility politics of the city. The article describes the various ideological shifts that took place, exploring how Tbilisi's cable car network now links to contemporary changes in government urban development priorities and tourism promotion. The findings are based on interviews, document analysis, transit ridership/City Hall data, as well as field observations that collectively provide an overview of Tbilisi's cable car network as it has transformed since the 1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1960s, both mega-events and special economic zones have gained global prominence as agents of urban development. Often relying on extra-legal measures for their realization, these two initiatives further create areas of spatial exclusion in cities. This paper examines their coming together in Tbilisi, Georgia, where costs for the city's hosting of the 2015 European Youth Olympic Festival were defrayed by the company Hualing Group in exchange for government approval of a 420-hectare special economic zone. Using a qualitative mixed-methods approach, the research shows that combining mega-events with special economic zones poses significant threats to the democratic processes tied to urban planning at both the local and national level. It further demonstrates how the coinciding of such projects promotes sprawl and privately-enclaved urban development patterns. In relation to urban theory, the paper contributes to a growing body of literature examining exceptionality in cities, and looking at how mega-events serve as legitimizing devices for even wider practices of long-term spatial and legal exception, such as special economic zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]