In general, Russians are happy with what is happening in their cities in terms of landscaping. However, there is something to work on: comfortable courtyards, parks and playgrounds are still not enough, and the topic of parking remains as painful as possible
At the just—held St. Petersburg International Economic Forum – 2024, the results of the next joint survey “Dom.The Russian Federation” and VTSIOM, dedicated to how Russians assess the state of the urban environment in their places of residence. Here are some conclusions of this study, which was conducted literally on the eve of SPIEF 2024, in May.
Over the year, the share of citizens satisfied with the well—being of their city increased by 7 percentage points to 61% from 54% in 2023. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the largest increase in the proportion of such citizens is in large cities (plus 14 percentage points). “The proportion of citizens who consider their city well-maintained in Moscow and St. Petersburg is almost twice as high as in small towns with a population of up to 100,000 inhabitants (80% and 47%, respectively). But in such cities, the proportion of residents who noted positive changes over the year is higher than the national average (43% versus 37% on average in the country),” the study emphasizes.
It is important that 64% of the townspeople noticed the landscaping work started in their city over the past 12 months. At the same time, again, in small towns this figure is even higher: 70%. But Muscovites and Petersburgers are lagging behind here for some reason (59%, noticeably below the Russian average), and why this is so is quite a topic for a separate conversation.
As for the specific parameters of the urban environment assessment, according to the survey data, the best situation in Russian cities is with a variety of commercial and household infrastructure: the survey participants highly appreciated both its current state and the dynamics of improvement over the past year. Everything is not bad with the territorial accessibility of educational institutions, although the dynamics of this parameter over the past year is low, according to Dom.RF. Accessibility of public places is one of the most noticeable improvements over the year, according to citizens. Russians also highlighted improvements in pedestrian infrastructure and urban landscaping.
“Traditionally, the most problematic assessments have been the organization of parking lots and a barrier-free environment. And if the citizens noted positive changes in the organization of a barrier—free environment over the past year, then the problem of parking remains acute,” the authors of the study admit. “Organization of parking lots” and “Infrastructure for alternative transport” are the only two parameters of the urban environment, which, according to the results of the survey, turned out to have a negative balance of positive and negative ratings: minus 7% and minus 8%, respectively.
Respondents were also asked about the improvement of which public spaces they lack in the city (by the way, during the survey, only 15% of citizens said that this parameter fully satisfies them). Curiously, the top 5 most popular queries are the same for everyone, regardless of the size of the settlement: residents of all cities lack primarily organized courtyards, playgrounds and sports grounds, parks and squares. It is no coincidence that in the federal register of best landscaping practices for 2023, which is maintained by the Ministry of Construction, the most popular nomination was “Landscaping of a square, street, boulevard, square, embankment or other public area as a zone of pedestrian transit, human communication, entertainment, provision of services.”
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“The annual monitoring of the population’s assessment of the quality of the urban environment allows us to identify both developed areas of improvement and vulnerable areas that require priority attention of the state. “The house.The Russian Federation” takes into account the wishes of citizens when developing master plans for agglomerations, including small towns. In parallel, over 300 public space renovation projects have been developed in various regions of the country, 130 of them have already been implemented in 45 cities,” said the head of the analytical center “Dom.Russian Federation” Mikhail Goldberg.
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