so many things around here are so messed up

I’m not sure you often allow yourself to write things like that - that is, the truth 😄- something I never fail to point out in every single one of my posts. It just comes naturally to me/out of me. (Perhaps because I am utterly desperate, with no hope for the future or for any kind of normal life.)
Anyway, I was very disappointed to learn about the fate of this city as well - a city with great potential, thanks to its history, location, renowned university, culture, architecture, people, and everything.
For decades, the state, represented by those in power (and no, the state is not the people), has been committing genocide against its own population. It is as if someone had tasked them with destroying every local inhabitant and demolishing everything built with such toil over the centuries.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but anyone left on their own - forced to battle through life here by themselves - can understand me.
And you’re right about that: nowhere else along the Danube in Western Europe does the river look quite like this. But that is the least of what could be said about this poor city. It is very sad.