At the end of March, Tallinn experiences its first warm days of spring and people are lured out to walk by the sea, even though it is usually windy. The new cruise terminal at the Port of Tallinn has become a destination for urban walks despite its remote location, which is surrounded by large car parks, lorries and wire fences. Tallinn's coastline is tens of kilometres long and includes abandoned harbours, new housing developments and an empty prison. You can walk from the passenger port to the city centre in ten minutes. The neighbouring city of Helsinki is only 80km away across a heavily-trafficked sea. For fifty years, this was the western border of the Soviet Union. The entire waterfront was cut off from the city by industry: a concrete parts factory on the seashore, the closed ports or, more concretely, a wall - the symbolic Iron Curtain. When Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the walls were demolished, factories were closed and the port area bordering the city centre was on its way to becoming one of the hottest spots for urban development. At least, that was the vision. In reality, neoliberal urban policies resulted in the land being divided into lots and sold, with commercial interests favoured over the creation of public space, and building programmes dictated by the market: all resulting from the newly regained freedom.
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