Problems of Metropolis

I would like to tell you about my native city, Moscow, but from the perspective of an architect who understands that in our profession is increasingly present economy and less architecture, and this fact makes me really upset Moscow is the largest metropolis in the East European and Central Asian part of the continent, and when compared with Europe is only slightly inferior to such giants as London and Paris.And like any big megapolis Moscow has a number of problems that are inextricably linked to the economic efficiency of the city. From the diagram below it is clear that Moscow is one of the world’s major cities, but in contrast to the same Miami, whose area exceeds Moscow’s more than twice has a much greater population density. So the story will be continued about population. Due to the fact that Moscow is the economic center of not only Russia but also the entire Central Asian region, in the city in search of better jobs, education, health care and generally a better life, people seek not only from all over Russia, but also with the former USSR.There are two problems – overpopulation problem in general and the problem of migrants, especially the residents of the former southern Soviet republics such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, etc. This is related with lower cultural level of visitors, as evidenced by the fact that the criminal offenses committed in the past year by migrants from Central Asia had about the same quantity as committed by Russian citizens, despite the fact that the number of migrants, fortunately, less than the number of indigenous citizens. But from an economic point of view, this situation is very beneficial to the Moscow authorities, as it is well known the low skilled migrants is much less demanding in salary and social security package than local staff. Schedule of population growth in Moscow is given above, shows a sharp increase in population after 90s. The solution to this problem personally, I see the following measures; This is a fairly strict policy in the field of migrants, and I mean low-skilled workers, who often do not even know the Russian language and have a very primitive level of cultural development.However, the opposite attitude highly qualified professionals should operate a policy of encouraging and mentoring. What do I mean by this: if the public authorities detect a deficit of certain professions, they should ensure on concessional terms the influx of members of the profession from the outside, as it is happening in the US for many years, but on the condition that these people will be involved in training programs for the training of local specialists and so after a while these knowledges will be transferred to local workers. The second necessary step, I think should be the decentralization of the country, and by that I mean not political decentralization, but economic. Thus it is necessary to create favorable conditions for work, learning and living at least in twenty largest cities of Russia, plus special attention for the Far East region of the country. Another significant problem is the traffic situation, many kilometers of traffic jams and crowds in the subway. This is the consequence of two reasons – first was considered above-overcrowded city, the second is that most of the jobs are concentrated in the central administrative district. But as the industry in Moscow is almost gone because of the ridiculous pro-American policy of the authorities, it is mainly office buildings and offices of various companies. Thus it turns out that the entire Russian people seek to Moscow, and from all over Moscow seek in the center of Moscow. Complicated transport situation is caused also by the fact that the city has radial concentric urban planning scheme, which significantly complicates the movement on it as opposed to a network structure. The result is that the average resident of Moscow spends on the way to work or school hour and a half , and a resident of the Moscow region average two hours. The solution I see the same in one, creating multiple economic centers throughout the territory of Moscow. In other matters, the Moscow authorities have already taken a step in this direction – a so-called project “New Moscow”, when the western part of Moscow was attached a huge territory of the Moscow region, in which then are going to move all the bureaucratic apparatus from the city center. But when the project will be ended it is not known , cause it’s expensive and what results it will bring is unknown also. The problem as well is that the last few years, Moscow authorities have taken a number of unproductive measures in the field of transport, which significantly complicated the situation on the roads, so the change in the law in the direction of increasing the speed of travel on the roads, too, would bring positive results. Another solution is complex reconstruction of the main arteries, because the economic activity of the population depends of speed and freedom of its mobility. Another problem is the climate of the city, unpredictable unfavorable for 6 months of the year. And of course, this factor affects on the transport situation and the overall mood of the people. The problem of air pollution gradually recede according to disappearance of industry in Moscow. But not only the industry was the fault of air pollution, the air is very dusty in Moscow as the soil around is very eroded and ground powder is constantly rising up to the air, and of course a tremendous increase in the number of vehicles has not brought anything good. At this point in Moscow is still acute situation with water, air and forest parks pollution. The situation is also complicated by the fact that during the construction changes of natural relief were unbalanced many ecosystems. Can only hope that in the near future will be developed a package of measures to clean air and water, will be changed legislation requiring all industrial production take care and protect of environment on their territories. Winter in Moscow   I would also like to consider another problem associated with life in Moscow and having a direct impact on the economic situation in the city. The problem of housing in Moscow – one of the most acute problems is considerably stronger than in other Russian cities. “Revolutionary transformation” after 1917 gave rise to a myriad of communal apartments, continues to this day. Moscow had expanded, but had not had time to build up; annual housing construction hadn’t been able meet the ever growing needs of moscow citizens, both indigenous new arrivals. In Moscow, quite a high proportion of five-storey buildings and communal apartments, and the number of residential and common area per one person, significantly below the norm (and Russian standards much less Western). Now one resident has an average of 21 m2, and in some areas, mainly the central – even less. This leads to the fact that the housing problem in Moscow was and still is much more pronounced than in other regions.It is worth noting that, in particular, according to the calculations laid down in the draft plan, provision of Moscow residents living area will increase in 2020 to 35 m2 / person. In 1999 he was introduced by a total of 3448.2 thousand of M2 of living space. The rapid growth of the construction for the past 10 years shows that demand still exceeds offer that’s mean that people still seek to settle in the Moscow. Which inevitably gives a lot of freedom to speculators in the market as the cost of construction is often ten times less than the market price. And this situation has not changed by financial crisis of 2008 or the current difficult political and economic situation. But the difference between these two values is a separate issue, I would like to talk about the nature of the Moscow new buildings. In most cases, it is absolutely thoughtless construction of multifamily high-rise buildings which transform city into concrete jungle. Construction is carried out without attention to the standards, innovations, quality and the cultural heritage. Construction business is full of crime and corruption. A particularly acute situation was observed in the late 10′s when the power belonged to a former Moscow Mayor Luzhkov, Moscow was flooded by tasteless and sometimes life-threatening buildings. The situation has changed for the better with the advent of the new mayor, his government was paying more attention to reconstruction and restoration of parks, heritage sites, roads, public cultural spaces and expand branches of metro, Was introduced the resettlement program of the old five-storey buildings and communal apartments. But the problem of resettlement is still very sharp, because according to experts in 2013 was able to settle only 7-8% of damaged houses. These houses were built as temporary housing in the postwar period, when it was necessary quickly provided houses for people, but their operational period smoothly ended after 30 years, but there were complicated 80s for the country and the matter was postponed indefinitely, although were prepared even necessary projects, but again the question of financing all stopped. Then began the process of panel construction in new areas of Moscow, was again not up to the five-story building. And now to solve this problem is possible only through the purchase of commercial property that can afford very, very few or through a mortgage which will expose you to twenty or even more years of banking slavery.After analyzing all these difficulties, I came to the conclusion that the problem can only be solved at the state level through reforms in the housing sector. In general appearance of the city since the beginning of the century has changed dramatically, but sometimes there is a question , are all these costs for the construction of shopping centers and new monuments so necessary, because these funds could address such pressing issues as support for low-income families and the construction of social housing. But the irrationality of economic policy of the Moscow government still makes itself felt, although people can notice some improvement. All these aspects mentioned above have a direct relationship with the economic life of the city, with its prosperity or fall. At the moment, we can observe the delicate balance in the economic life of Moscow, I think this is due to a large safety margin, which is a huge revolving funds in the city. But I hope that soon the people in whose hands are concentrated power and money will become more aware, and life not only in Moscow but throughout the country will be better!