The asphalting is finished. The new car park at the former barracks in Bitola, at the STU9 ARM Quarter 3 site, covers 1,550 square metres. The contract is worth 6,256,014.18 denars, and the project was delivered through the government's second call via the Ministry of Transport.

Those six million denars cover the roadway, storm drainage, traffic layout and lighting. The Bitola municipality says work is running in parallel at other locations in the city.

Do the maths yourself: roughly 4,036 denars per square metre of car park, everything included. Whether that is a lot or a little depends on what you compare it to - and municipal statements as a rule offer no comparison, only a total and a surface area.

The barracks that becomes a car park

The former barracks in Bitola is a site with its own history and with decades of unused potential. That the first thing the city gets out of it is a parking lot says something about priorities - although, to be fair, parking in Bitola is a real problem every driver there knows by heart.

The municipality says it is continuing with the same kind of projects at other locations. This is ordinary municipal work, done with government money through a ministry call.

What is worth watching is not whether the asphalt was laid - it was. It is whether those 1,550 square metres will actually be used as a public car park, or whether a way will be found within a few years to repurpose the same ground into something else. People in Bitola have seen this scene before, and they know the question that matters is not asked on the day the asphalt goes down.