Centar, Gazi Baba and Karpoš turn 50: ceremonies and folk dances, but the measure for the next 50 years is the pavement

Gazi Baba and Karpoš were formed on November 3, 1976, and Centar was also founded in 1976. Half a century later, the three Skopje municipalities each marked the anniversary in their own way - with formal sessions, ceremonies, guests from the region and folklore.

Centar hosted the mayors of Belgrade's Stari Grad, Radoslav Marjanović, and Sarajevo's Centar, Srđan Mandić. There was talk of culture, sport, youth exchange, urban planning and "smart cities". Mayor Goran Gerasimovski, now in his second term, listed the Prolet kindergarten with room for 173 children, the renovated Rabotnički sports hall, reconstructed streets and school extensions. "Centar has a rich past, a strong urban spirit and a great future that we are building together," he said.

Gazi Baba marked the jubilee with a formal council session and a ceremony at which pride of place went to 55 students on municipal scholarships. Mayor Boban Stefkovski said political differences are a normal part of democracy but must not stand in the way of projects and infrastructure. As part of the anniversary, he and council president Viktor Trpevski sat down at the same table with former mayors and council presidents. Also at the ceremony was Skopje mayor Orce Gjorgjievski, who promised that the City would be a partner in future capital projects and in solving problems that have been piling up for years.

Karpoš celebrated with a folklore evening at the Drama Theatre, with six cultural and arts societies on stage and Mayor Sotir Lukrovski in the audience.

Anniversaries are nice and well deserved. But among this week's ceremonial sentences, one admission slipped through, from the mayor of Skopje: that there are problems that have been piling up for years. If even those in power say so, then the real measure for the next fifty years isn't the number of ceremonies. Will people living in Centar, Gazi Baba or Karpoš feel the anniversary where they live - at the kindergarten, on the pavement, in the car park outside their building?