08 January. Finally, after numerous rallies and protests, the mayor's office of Moscow corrected the conditions for the demolition of five-story houses, as a result, most homeowners agreed with the renovation.
After in February 2017, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussed the renovation plans, a storm of indignation rose in social networks. And not without reason. First, in the mayoral election campaign, not a word was said about the renovation. Elections in 2013 Sobyanin won without mentioning this topic. As always in Russia, important questions surfaced unexpectedly. Why exactly in February 2017 did this question come up? An accurate analyst does not know the exact answer. But in general, it is not the causes, but the consequences that arose from the consideration of this issue.
The reaction of society was predictable. A year before, the city government had begun to fight against samostroem, eliminating various annexes around subway stops and other transport facilities. This "cleansing" caused a storm of indignation at first, social networks were full of reports that it was now impossible to buy the necessary products on the way home, that there was no longer a favorite cafe, etc. There was much talk about the "illegality" of the actions of the mayor's office.
But time has passed and about the demolished stalls have already forgotten. Now most of the contrary is quite the way the city has changed.
And now a project has come to renovate - an idea that will touch the homes of hundreds of thousands of people. Spontaneous rallies began. Apotheosis was a rally, held on May 14 on Sakharov Avenue "Against the demolition of Moscow, in defense of private property", which was organized by journalists and municipal deputies. This meeting gathered 22 thousand people. However, it can not be called highly productive (except, perhaps, the scandal with Alexei Navalny).
Muscovites support
The City Hall still heard the voice of the people and revised the renovation project, making various amendments, and also started working with the residents of the city through the application "Active citizen" and the meeting of the residents of the houses.
As a result, according to official figures, at the first stage of the discussions, 4 087 households voted for the inclusion of houses in the renovation program. By August, their number had grown to 5 144, as of the end of December, there were 5,171 houses (a number of houses by that time had left the list on the contrary).
As a result, renovation, originally estimated as Sobyanin's major mistake for all his years of government, ceased to be perceived in this way, and left the first newspaper pages and the air of television. Administrative PR campaign overplayed the opposition.
However, it's not only about properly organized work with Muscovites, but also in the promises of the mayoralty of various benefits to those who agree to a renovation. It's no secret that most Muscovites can not solve the problem of improving their housing conditions on their own. Almost the only way out for them is a mortgage, you do not want to go into it, because the mortgage in Russia works on absolutely different principles than in the USA or in most European countries. This applies not only to the cost of mortgages, but also the level of income of the population and the quality of housing. In the US and in Europe, mortgages are usually taken for the purchase of houses, rather than apartments in apartment buildings.
Privatization of housing, which began in the 1990s, led to the fact that people became owners of Soviet housing, for which they now hold as the only achievement of privatization. Because of this, the authorities' second "gift" - the improvement of previously donated property - is perceived, rather, with enthusiasm.
The absence of mass protests, which were expected at the very beginning, is explained precisely by this moment. People have not become owners in the full sense of the word, so it's easy enough to part with the fact that they got inexpensive. It was those who purchased apartments in the secondary market, were at the forefront of protests, because their choice when buying a home was conscious, but, unfortunately, they turned out to be less.
The position of business in the real estate sector is generally approvingly expectant: the renovation offers very large volumes of both demolition and construction to pass by such a tidbit. Naturally, the company is concerned about the transparency of getting into the program and the level of income from participation in it, but this is a trifle against the background of the general expectation of a revival in the real estate market.
As for infrastructure and architecture, the minuses immediately come to the fore. Moscow never leaves the concept of an overpopulated metropolis, in which most citizens live in high-rise buildings, but the social and economic conditions are such that people and businesses that are not used to thinking about the long-term perspective pay attention to this last. Help Moscow, erecting in place of demolished hruschevok, for example, three-story townhouses, it is currently impossible. Even the Moscow region is currently being built up by ugly high-rise buildings. Russia is still too poor a country to think and make decisions for the long term.
