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Letter to the Editor

Thursday, April 10
To the Editor,

I have been living and working as an expat in Tbilisi since January 2004. One thing that has always been difficult for me is to navigate throughout the city. The lack of adequate street signs and building numbers compounds the problem—especially when the few signs that exist are only in the Georgian language.

It would be a welcome improvement to see the City of Tbilisi solve this problem by requiring all buildings and residences to have numbers posted on their walls. To see street signs on every corner or intersection in both Georgian and English alphabets would be a great improvement as well. These are common practices in the West. Additionally, it would be extremely useful for the city to post Metro route maps at every Metro station and to identify each stop on the route in both English and Georgian languages.

When traveling outside of Tbilisi, I have seen many examples of road signs that contain both alphabets. Why not extend this practice to Tbilisi city signs as well? It would be a tremendous help to the expats who enjoy living and working here and to those foreigners who visit Tbilisi for shorter periods of time such as tourists.

Why not adopt this recommendation as another infrastructure improvement project for the city of Tbilisi? I am sure all would benefit.

Tom Lord, Tbilisi