"Come out into the yard — let’s play!" It sounds very much like the shout of a mischievous little boy. That mischievous little boy is Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov. He is, in fact, one of the main lobbyists for the development of neighborhood sports. And clearly, the mayor is an effective lobbyist: Moscow has a whole range of relevant programs, including the already mentioned "Come Out Into the Yard — Let’s Play," "My Yard Is a Sports Yard," and others. So in theory, every functioning sports ground in Moscow is almost a sacred value, and anyone who encroaches on one should face terrible punishment. Which is entirely proper. After all, the main priority of Moscow’s urban development policy is social infrastructure. But as we know, where there is a powerful friend, a powerful enemy often appears as well. On 3rd Roshchinskaya Street, there is an excellent hockey rink, very popular with local residents, who come out into the yard and play there in strict accordance with Yuri Mikhailovich’s call. And this hockey rink is liked by everyone — not only the residents, but also the Federal Security Service (FSB), which decided to build a residential building for its employees in its place. Moscow officials, who in words stand firmly for preserving sports grounds, somehow immediately lost their energy and fighting spirit when confronted with the all-powerful security service, and suggested that residents fight for their rights themselves. The residents appealed to FSB chief Patrushev. After all, Nikolai Platonovich is, among other things, a member of the Presidential Council on Physical Culture and Sport. But for some reason Nikolai Platonovich, too, instantly fell out of love with sports and flatly refused to look for another construction site. And so the usual bureaucratic cycle began. Let’s hear from Maria Eidelman, chair of the local residents’ initiative group. Eidelman: For more than a year we have been fighting to preserve our yard with its children’s sports ground. Our hockey rink is one of the best in the Danilovsky District. To eliminate such a sports facility would be nothing short of a crime. What the developers tried to offer us instead was simply laughable. Our rink is 800 square meters, and what was offered was 92 square meters. In other words, a little patch nine times smaller, a kind of pen, on land where a heating main runs — they carved out this tiny piece there. Naturally, we are all against it, we are all outraged. We have a full-fledged skating rink, the only one in the neighborhood. People skate there, play hockey there, and what they are offering us is a complete sham. This week, the desperate residents turned to an authority that is probably even more powerful than the FSB. Eidelman: Having found no protection in the Department of Urban Development Policy, we decided to appeal to a somewhat higher authority, so to speak. Father Alexander, a priest from the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Shabolovka, gladly accepted our proposal to bless the rink and conducted a prayer service with great feeling. We think this rite will help us and protect us. It is unclear what had the greater effect — heavenly forces or the residents’ visits to every possible office. But when we called the prefecture of the Southern Administrative District, its representative told us wearily: call back in half an hour, we are ready to make an official announcement. We call back and hear: Pergamenshchik: At 5 3rd Roshchinskaya Street, construction of a residential building for employees of the Federal Security Service had been planned. During the construction work, it was proposed that the 800-square-meter hockey rink be moved to another site. Residents of nearby buildings appealed to the Prefect of the Southern Administrative District, Pyotr Biryukov, and to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, asking that the sports facility be preserved in its current location. At present, the head of the Moscow city government staff has instructed the construction complex to select another plot for the building. Consequently, there will be no construction at this site. Those were the words of press service chief Igor Pergamenshchik. It seems like a happy ending to a story that lasted almost two years. But there is one oddity. Despite assurances that the hockey rink will remain intact and unharmed, the residents do not fully trust the authorities — and they have reason not to. Eidelman: The prefecture, at least in words, seems to support our position. And we are very glad of that. But there is one nuance: our rink has not been entered into the cadastral register of sports grounds in the Southern District. Recently the Prefect signed that cadastral list. All the grounds were included. Except ours. Let us hope, then, that the prefecture keeps its promises, and that FSB employees make friends with sports and agree to receive their housing without taking it away from young hockey players. In our previous program, we talked about Kolomenskoye Park, part of which, under a strange decree by the Moscow city government, could be turned over to residential development. In interviews with our program, park representatives burst out laughing and dismissed the very possibility that such a decree existed. They explained the activism of the people who came out to protest by saying they had overactive imaginations. But apparently we did manage to plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the administration’s representatives, and they deigned to check the facts we had presented. And already this week, on national television channels, these same people were angrily denouncing the Moscow city government, expressing outrage at its decision, and promising not to allow any development. Well, we are very glad that our program prompted the park administration to figure out what is happening on its own territory. The city authorities have decided to roll out their park-and-ride parking project across the entire city. The reason was what they consider the successful experience of the pilot project. Let me remind you that under the idea of such parking lots, Muscovites from the city’s outskirts would drive their private cars to roughly the Third Ring Road, then park them and continue by bus and metro. The idea is doubtful, to say the least. And to a great many outside observers, the pilot project for such a parking lot at Krestyanskaya Zastava Square seemed to have failed completely. At night, local residents park their cars there, and during the day, employees of nearby offices do. There is not even the slightest sign of any park-and-ride function. Apparently, officials attach some special meaning to the concept of a successful project — one inaccessible to the rest of us. Urban Development Chronicle. Echo of Moscow. May 6, 2006.