Just try, my dears, going to Pushkinskaya or Chistye Prudy (central Moscow locations) and putting up an “unauthorized structure” there. I’d very much enjoy watching how exactly you manage to pull that off.
How exactly would you lay the foundation, do the excavation work, build the whole thing, connect it to electricity and sewage after obtaining the so-called “connection terms”? Then get a permit to trade in a supposedly nonexistent unauthorized building, a license to sell alcohol, register a cash register, sign a garbage removal contract with a city contractor, and so on and so forth.
Do you really think you could do all that without officials noticing—and without their involvement?
All right, forget Pushkinskaya. Take this “unauthorized structure” by Maryino metro station, where I live—a three-story permanent building. As a matter of fact, it was the newest structure of this kind by the station (I even think it was built during Sobyanin’s time in office). It housed two cafés, which means it was fully connected to city utilities.
It was in the busiest spot by the metro. So who was this mysterious and powerful person who managed to build this “unauthorized structure”?
So let’s not fool ourselves or let officials pull the wool over our eyes. These are not “unauthorized structures built by small business owners”; they are “structures built by the Moscow city government.” Maybe under Luzhkov, maybe under Sobyanin, but definitely under United Russia’s Moscow machine.
It would have been impossible to build all this without paperwork, approvals, and bribes involving all those agencies—past and present: OATI, IGASN, APU, Moskomarkhitektura, the prefecture, the district administration, Mosenergo, Mosvodokanal, and so on and so on.
That is precisely why many owners of these “unauthorized structures” have all the paperwork and court rulings in their favor.
I do not doubt for a second that the Pyramid shopping center at Pushkinskaya is a monstrous eyesore.
I’m simply saying that, as a Muscovite, I demand that the bitterness of demolishing this property (which, incidentally, has not yet been demolished) be shared by the officials who allowed it to be built and then fed off this “unauthorized structure” for years, along with the owners and tenants.
They say 104 properties will be demolished. Fine—then give me 104 criminal cases, or administrative cases, or at the very least disciplinary cases against the former and current officials who authorized the construction or “failed to notice” it.
Otherwise, it turns out that the main culprit is some poor soul who rented an officially operating store, took out a loan to buy inventory, worked, created jobs, and was thrown out into the street overnight along with everything in the shop.
Today people were literally standing there crying by that wrecked building in Maryino—they lost their jobs in an instant, and about 30 people worked there. There’s an economic crisis on—go try and find a new job. I really disliked that building, but treating people this way and making them the scapegoats is simply vile.
The most disgusting part is that the demolition is being overseen by officials from the prefecture and district administration—the very same people who took bribes to allow this construction in the first place.
Here’s an example from personal experience. There used to be a car wash next to my building; it was demolished in the “first wave”—on December 31. I walked out of my building in the morning, and it was gone. When they wanted to build it, the residents of our two buildings protested: we held about a dozen rallies, blocked the road, and physically stopped construction equipment from entering the site.
I personally wrote around twenty letters saying the construction was illegal. Every single reply said the same thing: everything is legal, everything is as it should be, all the proper title documents are in place.
And now it has been demolished, and suddenly it was an “unauthorized structure.” Meanwhile, the prefect of my Southeastern District has in his official biography that he “worked in the prefecture of Moscow’s Southeastern Administrative District from 1997 to 2008.” They “legally” built it, and now they are “legally” demolishing it.
A terrific incentive for business development in Moscow.
Another crucial point about these Sobyanin-era demolitions: why are they only tearing down the small stuff? If you’ve decided to demolish illegal construction, then demolish all of it—everything built in violation of the rules.
The worst traffic jam in Moscow is at the intersection of Lyublinskaya Street and Volgogradsky Prospekt. One reason is that they somehow “failed to notice” this unauthorized structure there:
A monstrous and absurd “elevated retail pedestrian crossing.” A true product of architectural hell. They slapped it together without proper documents. During the 2013 election campaign, when I spoke in that neighborhood and described the crossing as a symbol of corruption destroying urban life, local United Russia activists would show up at the meetings and shout: Navalny is lying, the decision has been made, the crossing will be demolished.
The election came and went, and here is the news from the Southeastern District prefecture:
It was built with violations, but they’ll pay a fine and everything will be fine.
How does that work? Some get demolished overnight in what amounts to a special operation, while others can simply pay a fine.
Because of this crossing, they were unable to build a proper road interchange there. It does more harm than all the kiosks put together, yet it will remain standing.
It very much looks as though they are simply demolishing the properties of those who cannot deliver a large enough sum of money to City Hall.
It stood there for many years, and then all of a sudden it became “dangerous for Muscovites”:
Klychkov from the Moscow City Duma is absolutely right: Moscow is full of enormous illegal shopping centers. There’s no shortage of things to demolish.
But no one is in any hurry. Let’s take a look at the paperwork for the Evropeysky shopping center by Kiyevsky railway station.
Or for Atrium at Kursky station.
Or let’s look at what kind of monstrosity they’re building on Paveletsky station square, taking public space away from Muscovites.
And here is the most important view not just in Moscow, but in all of Russia. A national treasure:
It has been disfigured by one of Moscow’s most revolting buildings—the Swissôtel Krasnye Holmy now stands there. It should have been demolished long ago, at least the upper floors.
It is all illegal construction—it’s just carried out by people who have the ability to “make things happen.”
I believe there should be one uniform approach here: no extrajudicial, surprise demolitions. Behind every illegally built structure there is an official responsible for it. First, overturn the officials’ decisions and hold them accountable. Then go to court seeking demolition. Or buy the property from the owner at market price and then demolish it, as is done throughout the world.
One crucial question must not be forgotten: is there any guarantee that something new—something “legal”—will not be built on these sites? Otherwise it will be just like the kiosks in metro underpasses. First they said those were a terrorist threat and demolished them, and now different people are building the same things all over again. Moscow City Hall must clearly guarantee that the plots under the demolished structures will remain empty forever.
And one last thing, though by no means the least important: where are people supposed to buy food, especially those living in the center? A city is not just streets and roads. It is a place where you buy a bottle of water, ice cream, cigarettes, a hot dog. You have your route and your everyday routine: here you drink coffee, here you grab a shawarma.
All retail is being herded into huge malls—yes, big chains make excellent money from that, but is it actually good for us? Does it make the city better? Remember Moscow in the 1980s: vast empty squares and lines stretching for what felt like kilometers just to buy a soda.
The demolition of kiosks should be accompanied by sweeping measures to bring the first and second floors of residential buildings into real urban use. A simple notification-based procedure for converting residential premises into commercial ones. Standardized designs and fast permits for cutting separate street entrances—shared apartment entrances won’t do. Mechanisms for resolving conflicts and compensating those who live upstairs and are less than thrilled to discover a café opening beneath them. None of this exists, and there are no plans for it either.
It gives the impression that City Hall simply needs to urgently solve the problem of filling chain shopping centers that are facing financial difficulties with tenants.
In short: you cannot improve a city through lawlessness, hypocrisy, lies, and shady schemes. But you can certainly make life worse for a great many people.
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