Translated material
Science for the city
We publish a conversation with the largest Russian urbanist - Vyacheslav Leonidovich Glazychev, spent in the last months of the professor’s life. How does science help to determine the development strategy of Moscow? The conversation was held by Boris Dolgin, Anatoly Kuzichev and Dmitry Itskovich.
The city lives, develops, something happens. The city has political tasks, problems, there are traffic jams, finally. But there is no single scientific center of management in all this natural way. Firstly, because science does not know how to seriously work with cities.
Too complicated object. It’s more difficult to come up with a more difficult thing.
The city is much more complicated even by the human body. Because there are connections between these organisms. There are only separate planes in which this strange object - a heavily, metropolis - is displayed. Similar ecologists know what to say about this, where there is a limit, behind which there is nothing to breathe. Sensible ecologists are those that generally allow human existence. There are some who do not need a person. Sociologists still know something, but few, because they ordered studies and conducted little.
And this is our domestic specificity. The only real urban study that I know is a longtime research by visitors to the “perfect cup” network in St. Petersburg: what kind of strata, what kind of people are, how they behave.
In general, Moscow is zero in a sociological sense.Everyone is engaged only in the electorate. Go to the polls, back to the polls. In terms of real estate there is something. But rather, the guys from the "support of Russia" know this - marketers and politicians are more.
But on the sociological genuine map, it is enough to see what is the ethnic map of Moscow. If you dial in the search engine, then 2003 will jump out according to the results of 1999. Since then, the grant has ended, no one ordered this. Tajiks arrived, who were not yet, everything mixed up, the Chinese from Cherkizov moved to Lublin, but there was no map.
Here science is in a state of Styer, who was not given the commands to run.
But we know something.
Why did it happen that Moscow in the sociological sense zero? First of all, because the authorities do not give a damn what the inhabitants are doing and how they behave. At least it was until recently. Now the shift has begun - the site has become the first tool of feedback, feedback. But actually, the authorities still do not even know what they are confused. The horror that will now be in an array of increasing reactions! .. We must come up with an institution of response. There was only an institute of unsubscribes, they answered you: “It didn’t flow and will not flow” - or vice versa. But this is a new design that still needs to be created. Therefore, it turns out that
Knowledge is dangerous: you know - and you need to do something, but you don’t know - it’s good.
The new Moscow government, instead of looking around, where it “flows to a greater extent” began to think about strategy. This is completely natural. To look at, if we talk about a scientific approach, you need quite a long time, unfortunately. It is necessary to build an object, model, listen to disputes of different schools and so on. Where does Moscow end? Someone says that in Kaluga, and someone in Rostov or in general in Balashikha. Therefore, science in this sense is greatly confused, and the authorities must be acted immediately. Not only is the strategy only ordered, but before that, state programs have already been adopted in the amount of 18 pieces, because it should act! Science has nothing to do with it.
Outside the scope of 5-7 millionth, the moment comes when the word "city" loses its meaning. This is another, it is an urbanized territory.
The tradition of representing the city is Florence of the XV-XVI century or Paris of the middle of the nineteenth. We are dealing with the fact that it is not really described, so we have to say a “megalopolis”. They called it - became good to live? No, because it is not clear how to equip it. Do democratic institutions work in it? This is a big question. In Berlin, for example, they do not work. Or work, but only through the elections of the Senate. There is no more local government system. There is no Paris either. Well, we need to come up with it, because only through this you can come to meaningful citizenship .
Of course, there is such a democratic myth: there is a responsible citizen who is aware of himself and who hires power. And in megacities-that in Moscow, that in Hong Kong, that in New York is a myth. It’s just good in New York, because there is a Bloomberg who receives a dollar a year and is clearly interested in public good. And if there is no Bloomberg and dollar a year? In other words, the bureaucracy of a ultra -large city is a topic that is seriously engaged in a real number of people.
And I'm trying. Now the book of my friend Blair Rael has been published, which was recently at Polit.ru , “Biography of one street: Yubeet”, in Washington's U Street : A Biography). And no one even understands where Washington ends: there is a columbia distribution - this is one, but there is a real Washington where people live, and where universities of neighboring cities are part of it. Therefore, you have to live in multidimensional reality, and the science of the nineteenth century has not been used to this, and the twentieth was not yet formed.
It is necessary to recognize real Moscow and understand where it ends. For example, New York: there is a city apartment, but there is a house where the family really lives. We have already entered this phase, although so far in a small layer.
Second: there is Moscow, in which 40% is still engaged in incomprehensible by anyone. Federal lands, federal enterprises, where someone is trading from the rear corner. And only now the authorities took up the inventory of this process. It is difficult to build on this, because this earth is spoiled over decades of terrible soil poisoning.
The work of science is to give some knowledge. If you want or do not want to use knowledge - a matter of politics.
The worst when science tries to play the role of politics. Nothing good comes out of this.
Is the role of a scientist as a key expert for the development of a strategy?
Yes, it is really key, and my colleagues have to play in this role and wear this mask. But to be an honest expert, you can only talk about one thing: here are alternatives, here are the elections, here are the winnings that you can imagine. You know in advance that you are still unable to calculate all losses.
A simple example: you must finally make rental housing. Inside the existing de jure of Moscow, there is nowhere to do it, because you can’t do it a separate house, since these are small compact apartments, which means that you need to somehow compensate for it. How? A slide for skateboards - adolescents will be something to do. I laid it into 1000 apartments on a penny - it seems to be normal. This can be done on another, in the new territory - excellent. And how to make a technical task when architects are used to serving only a rich client? You have your own or make an international competition so that some Dutch are included in it, who are used to crumbling? Fortunately, it seems that it is possible to move the authorities to this. Because in fact, it is not a sin and international intelligence to use it.
Now an international competition for the idea of Moscow agglomeration is announced, where its border is not set. Participants must determine and motivate this border. This is the capital of knowledge that we can receive with the world on the thread.
For the first time in my memory, a reasonable law was adopted, according to which it is said that in the next few years nothing will change, all statuses will remain the same. In fact, this is a giant breakthrough.
Speaking seriously about scientific or by submissive knowledge, then we can say this:
There is no solution to the transport problem of Moscow without solving a large commodity transit, which has been going through Moscow since the beginning of the 1990s.
We need to take this stream from the city, because it has nothing to do with the city. And where to take it? This is a good question. The area says: let's make the CCAD, the central road! -This is the same MKAD, only 15-20 km further-nonsense! And the scientific-expert club says: nothing of the kind, it is necessary to bring it to the Kaluga and Tver regions. This must be discussed, calculated, considered the price and years.
Prices will rise because there are no reasons why they should stop growing. It is immediately clear that in less than 15 years this cannot be done. You can’t look at others in this matter: they have one thing there, we have another.
How does science help to determine the development strategy of Moscow?
If we say that the issues of transport are outside the Moscow line - this may already be a help. We are talking about the question of changing proportions in the housing stock with ownership of a rental - this may or not to be used. This is the only form of help that may be provided. Science does not work for power.
Science creates predictions : if you make a decision A , then keep in mind that you will face the situation b . This is the only thing that can be done. But this is not so little if you use it.
But
Experience shows that the perception of these recommendations takes about 8 years.Today, everything is clear to the expert community, and this will become a reality in 8 years.
What logic is the city development strategy is written and created?
Starting from the era of Boris Godunov, we worked in the same scheme: Moscow correlates himself with Paris, London. Today we say one thing: we want to be in the club of world cities. What is the world city - it is clear, their counting number, London and Paris - from this list.
The point is not in number, but the density of financial flows, in the density of intellectual activity, among the world congresses that are held there. If you spend 300 - you are in the club, but no - so sorry. If you accept this, what is the gap between where we are and what we want to have? It turns out that in terms of high cost we are already in the club, and in the rest of the parameters it somehow does not work. It doesn’t work out by transport, as much as we lag behind.
So, the number of world cities includes London, Paris, New York. Mexico City and Berlin are not included. And Tokyo?
On the verge. He has a huge plus and colossal disadvantages, the main of which is the monstrous monotony of the environment. It just causes nausea. This is a difficult evaluated thing, but it is important aesthetically - it’s nice to be there or not. Here is Barcelona - yes, it is one of the world cities.
World cities are cities where you want to return.
In Moscow, we have one cruel indicator: 8 out of 10 real tourists who are in Moscow (and this is only a million people a year, which is 30 times less than in London), they say that they will never come here again. You cannot anatomize every tourist! But, most likely, he will tell you that in the evening there is nothing to do, expensive and so on. So far, it is important for the authorities to say that: they do not love us.
At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the president said that from Moscow I would like to make a world financial center, everyone immediately ran up and became worried. Was it a development area?
This was an impetus to some extent, but the scientific and expert point of view matters. We need to know some things.
Today, all business, financial and other centers are not formed in cities, but by airports.
If, relatively speaking, I do not insist, it turns out that we accept and prove this position, then this center may appear between Vnukovo and Domodedovo so that problems can be solved in 5 minutes. If this does not happen, then there will be no financial center, because no one will spend 2.5 hours on the road.
In addition, if it is pleasant to be in the city, then the chances that it is pleasant to do and things is much higher in it. So the point is not in tourism as such - it is a matter of creating a favorable attitude, memory of this environment.
If we want to see Moscow in this series of world cities, then what should we do next? Look at some parameters and ratings?
And on ratings, and on parameters, and on opportunities. Then we can say what and when we can do. Because we can improve the situation by 10-12% by those measures that so far sound: dedicated stripes, pockets, additional parking spaces and so on. You can’t squeeze it out of this anymore - which is also important to honestly recognize.
If we have incomplete 8% of the area under the road, and the norm for the metropolis begins with 18-20%, then it is clear that tomorrow this will not be decided.
Honesty in this regard is very important.
The second thing: it is clear that it is necessary to begin to see that today's euphoria of its own car will begin to end after a while in the same way as it ended in Paris, in Berlin, and in London. Today it seems impossible, everyone runs after the next brand, but we have to look forward.
Then it will be possible to switch to what London and Stockholm are already doing, starting to squeeze a private car. But for this it is necessary to develop public transport. This is what the scientific and expert community is doing - it is trying to show wider than what is obvious.
The expert community reveals the non-obvious and shows the choice between some, as it seems, obvious options. And why do you need experts?
There is no longer needed anything else.
What disciplines should be involved in this work? It is clear that you can’t get anywhere here either without an ecologist or without a sociologist. Economists are completely unsuitable for business: they do not know how to work with the city. Moreover, nowhere. But this does not mean that they do not need to be used as much as possible. And then everything you want: forensics, organizers of movement.
For example, there is a simple task: to divide the services of the road police and the organization of traffic. They are merged today, and this is nonsense, because these are two different functionals: one catches violators, and the other shooks it off to go faster. The schizophrenic situation for our traffic police is either the traffic police, or how it is there.
There is no one who would not be useful in solving such a problem. A marketing specialist will be, in advertising - there will be, in tourism - it will be. Everyone needs to be tied to the task.