Merve is a student from Bosphorus University (Sociology and Political Science double-major) and lives in the area that is covered by the tour. Everywhere in Istanbul big urban renewal projects are on the rise, but the Maslak district is special in that the contrasts there can be observed very sharply: high gates of a multi-million dollar house next to clearly self-constructed gecekondu (illegal settlements), skyscrapers and highways next to forests, the stock exchange in the smoke of coal-burning gecekondu, evoking images of the industrial revolution right next to the high-tech world of global finance. The Istanbul stock exchange is the fifth in the world and is partially based on a lot of Middle Eastern trading. Contrary to what you might expect these contrasts do not lead to any problems. On the contrary: cross-overs between gecekondu and the places financial workers develop, like the cafe close to the stock-exchange where both local residents and the stock-exchange workers have tea and ‘Dükkan’, a five star butcher that started a shop and restaurant in the gecekondu and serves expensive cured meat to bankers from Maslak and Levent. There are so many expensive cars that drive through the gecekondu every day (the short-cut fro home to work) that the gecekondu residents have now hand-painted traffic signs to help these drivers find the way through their maze of small roads.