Budapest city (state capital), contemporary issues - - Pictures
The foremost public issue in Budapest is a rise in crime. A high cost of living, coupled with low wages for unskilled workers, has fostered thievery and prostitution in the city. The government has put more police on the streets in an attempt to curb crime. Another significant problem is the condition of properties in Budapest's inner city. In the early 1990s hundreds of thousands of former tenants purchased the housing they had been renting from the government, but since then many have been unable to afford the cost of proper maintenance. The government neglected the properties for years, so many apartment buildings in the inner city are badly in need of renovation or reconstruction.
