Garages
These days, though, many of the sheds may very well sit empty, as the age of widespread car ownership has made the garage the mainstream storage space. The garage of my childhood was a home unto itself, built to fit a family's collection of cars and assorted junk, accessed through a garage "door" that was more like a giant retractable wall. In comparison, Almaty garages seem barely big enough for a bicycle; it's a wonder that people can squeeze their cars into these tin cans (in Russian they're often nicknamed "seashells" (ракушки; rakushki) for their diminutive size and protective function). Though they may be tighter for space, garages here at least have a bit more charm. A diligent courtyard explorer can find garages painted rainbow colors or decorated in children's chalk. The most common accessory, though, is the hand-drawn sign screaming nye zagorazhivat [не загораживать]…"Don't block!"
There are some neighborhoods of private homes where people have no yards for parking their cars or don't feel safe leaving them on the streets. Here, the Soviet institution of the avtostoyanka [автостоянка; "co-op garage"] still lives on. Neighbors pay a monthly fee to store their cars there under the watchful eye of an ornery guard and his ornery dog, and by the looks of it, "store their cars" means that they horde away their old Zhigulis, dreaming of a future fix-up or a surge in the cost of vintage car parts. The lots sometimes have brick buildings to keep the cars clean, but just as often the cars are protected by little more than concrete fences and asbestos overhangs. The avtostoyanka and its avto inhabitants are unglamorous, but for the world of Sheds and Garages, that's perfectly okay.
There are some neighborhoods of private homes where people have no yards for parking their cars or don't feel safe leaving them on the streets. Here, the Soviet institution of the avtostoyanka [автостоянка; "co-op garage"] still lives on. Neighbors pay a monthly fee to store their cars there under the watchful eye of an ornery guard and his ornery dog, and by the looks of it, "store their cars" means that they horde away their old Zhigulis, dreaming of a future fix-up or a surge in the cost of vintage car parts. The lots sometimes have brick buildings to keep the cars clean, but just as often the cars are protected by little more than concrete fences and asbestos overhangs. The avtostoyanka and its avto inhabitants are unglamorous, but for the world of Sheds and Garages, that's perfectly okay.
