Transition Period   The transition period 1989-1999. Parts of the House of the Republic and the surrounding government buildings and Centrul Civic were not completed when the revolution struck Romania in 1989. Ceausescu has left an enormous legacy as the city now transforms during the present period of economic, political and social transition. Romania’s gradualist transition up to the election of Emil Constantinescu in 1996 caused very slight real change other than the upheaval of December 1989 when statues were torn down and public buildings were defaced. There was limited repair of major buildings damaged in the revolution, cleaning of commercial and banking institutions and the beginning of loosely planned ‘heritagisation’ of parts of the old town. Since 1996 there has been further cleaning of some of the neglected areas of the city and noticeable development of commercial plazas in the central area. Facilities like the railway station have also experienced some recent improvements. Some of the major contemporary issues include: the effects of globalisation as the city is now an available labour source and market for multi-national companies, planning for the legacy of the accommodation blocks on the city’s periphery and how to house the cities population in the future, dealing with the urban industrial structures that Stalinism designed into the city, coping with increased usage of the motor car, planning for large numbers of homeless people and people in real poverty, coping with land and property reform and the demands of residents who can prove property ownership prior to nationalisation, providing a sustainable future for the Centrul Civic and the Parliament Palace (House of the Republic).