The unfinished bridge connecting Rinkeby and Ursvik in Stockholm, Sweden.
Photographer: Erika Gerdemark/Bloomberg
What Broke Sweden? Real Estate Bust Exposes Big Divide
At the heart of the country’s economic and social crisis is a broken housing market, which has amplified social divisions
A half-finished bridge designed to connect two Stockholm neighborhoods has come to epitomize the seismic change Sweden is going through. On one side, an affluent neighborhood that's part of one of Stockholm's oldest suburbs, on the other, an enclave of 1970s-era public housing blocks with a dense population of migrants and a reputation as a trouble spot.
The two suburbs — Ursvik and Rinkeby on the outskirts of the Swedish capital — are physically separated by a four-lane highway. Yet the divisions are much wider than that in a country built on egalitarian ideals, but which now finds itself in the grip of an economic and social crisis. Some local politicians complain that the bridge, originally planned for public transport but now used as a pedestrian crossing for the residents from Rinkeby to visit shops on the other side, is damaging their property prices and that it could cause criminality to spread.