1948–1989 Commuting to the worksZa prácou do fabriky

Under communism the land was collectivised and the town's own trades were folded into state enterprises. What replaced them was a bus or a train ride: the copper works at Krompachy down the valley, the engineering plants at Spišská Nová Ves up it, the mines at Rudňany and Slovinky in the hills between. Spišské Vlachy became a place people slept in and left in the morning, which is largely what it still is. One consequence was accidental and good: no boom ever arrived here big enough to knock the old square down and rebuild it in concrete.Za socializmu bola pôda skolektivizovaná a mestské remeslá pohltili štátne podniky. Namiesto nich prišla cesta autobusom alebo vlakom: medené hute v Krompachoch dole dolinou, strojárne v Spišskej Novej Vsi hore ňou, bane v Rudňanoch a Slovinkách v kopcoch medzi tým. Zo Spišských Vlách sa stalo mesto, v ktorom sa spí a ráno sa z neho odchádza — a do veľkej miery to tak zostalo dodnes. Jeden dôsledok bol nechcený a dobrý: nikdy sem neprišiel taký rozmach, aby staré námestie zbúral a postavil nanovo z panelov.