Translated material
Kirov is a city of happy childhood
A long life in the capital, dozens of read books on the urban environment, as well as frequent traveling around cities and weights change the view of the state and problems of their native region, its large and small cities. You cease to evaluate it as an ordinary resident who gets used to some shortcomings, treating them philosophically, or completely ceasing to notice them, which rejoices even the most insignificant changes in the state of its urban environment, for example, if you suddenly have a large hole, which has been clinging to the bottom on the way to work or home for ten years. But you do not look at him and only as a tourist, a consumer who is exclusively interested in attractions, monuments, restaurants, museums and "what we have interesting here." There is a third glance at the hometown, more demanding on its appearance and internal infrastructure ...
I see how convenient and beautiful city streets can be, the benefits of, for example, from paid parking lots, developed public transport and at the same time, literally leaving the Moscow Ring Road, at the same time, I feel the shortcomings and omissions in urban planning and development where the progress has not yet reached. I also know examples of how even small, poor cities managed to improve the condition of their urban environment, its individual indicators and even start making money on this, and I don’t understand why the big and relatively rich Kirov cannot do the same?
Those January days that I was on Vyatka and kneaded a mixture of sand and snow with boots, or tried to resist my feet on a covered sidewalk, I wondered what the hell is difficult to clean the city streets, courtyards and other public spaces from snow? Why, according to the steps of the leisure center (the fact that in the cinema "October"), which, including the elderly, can not be used without the experience of figure skating? Or how much of the owners of some large shopping centers and stores do not respect their visitors that they would like to do not care if the latter can get from parking to the entrance or not?
As a result, even those streets on which there are no domestic garbage (although not everything is perfect here) look dirty and untidy, like the city itself. We add here the lack of normal practice on the separate collection of garbage (although containers, say, have come across the reception of mercury-containing lamps), the condition of both garbage containers and the "sites" for them, we get only 44 points of 100 by 1 to the 1st indicator "Cleanliness".
The street and road network of the city of Kirov ( 2nd indicator ) is not only that is distinguished by the poor quality of the roadway, it is also not developed in any way, which, unlike the same Omutninsk (where the results are 14 points above), creates problems for movement around the city. And the main problems are not in a shortage of overpasses, high -speed highways and overpasses, but in the absence of competent management of transport flows, administrative decisions (for example, paid parking) to calm and redistribute traffic, undeveloped alternative methods of movement around the city, low road safety and driving culture. But the most important problem is the wrong urban development strategy, when a large residential area is being built on the outskirts, but instead of creating a sufficient number of jobs (build the same offices) in it, billions of rubles are spent on the construction of an overpass that will move traffic jams from one part of the city to another, but will not save them.
The environment for pedestrians ( 3rd indicator ) in the city is no. Yes, there is a small pedestrian section of the street. Spasskaya, there is a pedestrian embankment of Green, but, firstly, it is a scanty part of all city streets, and, secondly, they have not seen repairs or created recently, but with gross mistakes, sidewalks, a low level of security of pedestrians, reduce the comfort of movement around the city, and for low-mobility groups, and completely makes such movement unbearable.
An increase in the population, an increase in the density of the development of cities in the near future can lead to the fact that ownership and use of a personal car will become disadvantageous due to high temporary or financial costs, and alternative methods of movement, including public transport, will come to the fore. But the transport system should be such that it was as simple and convenient as possible, and therefore, there must be guaranteed comfort, safety, unhindered movement, constant and accurate work schedule, high quality of service and low travel cost. It is clear that the appearance of a metro in Kirov, or say a tram topic for science fiction. But, if, say, the adoptive grooves are completely replaced at least with red kamases (in the photo), create transplanted nodes at the points of maximum intersection of routes (for example, at the railway station, Lepsa Square), where passengers on warm stops closed from the wind could be transferred to the right route, add allocated stripes, add dedicated stripes, salt and salt Pepper, the convenience of moving around the city by public transport would increase significantly, and the assessment of the 4th indicator would be much higher.
Any of our wrong solution today in decades can turn out against our children. For example, if in the thirties of the last century the Soviet government in the city had not destroyed the vast majority of Vyatka churches, trying to erase any manifestations of religion from the face of the country, and the townspeople managed to defend them, now it would not have to be spent money on their restoration, and attracting tourists to the city would not be a problem. Who knows, maybe due to an additional source of income, there were no problems with other indicators. But if, if, if ...
It must be admitted that the changes in the architectural appearance of the city that occurred during the Soviet Union sometimes used the city even to the benefit (take at least Lenin St., in the appearance of which the "house of the Chekists" and "Central Hotel", or the architectural and park ensemble of diorama) perfectly fit). It is pleasant to see that modern development takes into account the prevailing appearance of the city, creating a new unique architectural ensemble (for example, the development of the intersection of Kazan and Labor St., Vodovynaya St.). But all this is nullified by separate inappropriate or alternate buildings in the historical part of the city (the same Crimea shopping center), a poor state or destruction of historical buildings (although there are good examples of restoration), an abundance of visual garbage ( I talked about it earlier ) and a poor condition of the streets.
As a result, the general devastation spoils the architectural appearance of Kirov ( 5th indicator ), just like acne on his face, spoil the beauty of man.
And since it was about tourism, then we will continue about it. In recent years, in Kirov, tourism areas ( 10th indicator ), leisure and entertainment ( 8th indicator ), the sale of goods and the provision of services ( 7th indicator ), as well as catering ( 9th indicator ) have taken a huge step in their own development. The city has a huge variety of museums about the history of the native land: from the State Museum of Local Lore, to private museums in the history of Khlynov, photos and Dymkovo toys. There is a great puppet theater with magnificent actors, museums of chocolate and ice cream, where children, and adults can go through a master class on the preparation of these products and do it with pleasure. A modern cinema appeared with a unique design, preserved and turned from ordinary "eating" in the modern level of restaurants, a local network of fast food restaurants "Danar" (not without the help of competition that appeared in the city with McDonald's and other federal and international catering brands). The city has an excellent selection of souvenirs, starting with the Dymkovo toy, ending with food (and we are talking not only about "Vyatka kvass") and even clothes (the same brand "Clever"). There is and, most importantly, the tourist and information center works ... To describe everything interesting than a tourist and a local resident can do in the city, there will not be enough space here, and this will devote a separate post.
But, for the development of this direction, there is not enough normal positioning, both local goods (brands) and the city itself ... And here you should pay attention to our future - our children, and Kirov should be the city of happy childhood and it has a magnificent caulk (see the above). Hmm ... "Kirov is the city of a happy childhood" - that’s an excellent slogan, which, incidentally, is fully true.
By the way, part of one of the city streets (Spasskaya St.) may well become a street for children. At a short distance, the attraction points of the younger generation are concentrated here: museums and cafes, a puppet theater, and next to it is the Apollo Children's Park. If you put the soul into it, develop the theme of fortresses and knights, creating a maze inside, having built the verandas and playgrounds, repaired the existing fence in the style of the Middle Ages, dilute it with an African theme (giraffes already there) so that the child considers himself a researcher of unknown lands, and there will be no price for this park.
In general, there are many unique parks, squares and boulevards ( 6th indicator ) in Kirov, which could become a decoration of the city (and some are already such), but a huge problem with the variety of their functionality, the state of green spaces and the absence of the necessary minimum infrastructure: there are not enough benches and urns, scarce lighting, lack of toilets, etc.
It can be seen that Kirov’s parks do not have enough owner who would be responsible for their condition, developed and improved them ( what a good park looks like here ).
PS I recall that this assessment is the subjective opinion of the author, based on his own methodology and experience, and may not coincide with the opinion of the inhabitants. Everyone can independently evaluate both Kirov and any other city, using the methodology by reference .