Moscow Today

Any big city provides a jumble of impressions. Moscow has always looked exotic, with tsarist era buildings in candy-colored stucco next to Communist era construction, next to glitsy modern office buildings. Yet today the attention-getter is the automobile.  Traffic is at a standstill during rush hour, effectively making the roads into giant parking lots.   I can imagine stopping at an intersection, jumping out to do some shopping, and coming back before the traffic started to move.  

Curbside parking can be creative. In one area with parallel parking I saw a large SUV in a space half its size, put at right angle to the other cars, over the curb and onto the sidewalk. In areas with wide sidewalks entire blocks are crowded with cars parked this way. Only once did I see an open parking place. I suspect that automobile owners tend to leave their cars in one place as long as possible, because there's not likely to be open parking where they intend to go, and the place they vacate won't be available when they come back.   Besides, on street parking amounts to free storage. There's not a parking meter anywhere. 

On my way to the airport, the first 45 minutes of the 1 1/2 hour journey was at a pace that I could have beaten by walking.  Yet the scandal of the week was a drunk driver who streaked down a side street going 200 kilometers per hour, then crashed into a bus stop and killed seven people.   The dead included five youngsters from an orphanage who had just been honored for artistic talent.  Also  killed were the teacher and her husband. 

A second major problem in Moscow today is housing. Property rights are vague and in some cases are determined on the basis that might makes right. The only property safe from stealing is undesirable land. 

I could give many examples, but I'll give just one. A person with a nice country's dacha that has been used in the filming of television shows and movies  has just found out that ten 17-story buildings are going up on adjacent land. They are being built right against the property lines, and this person says that if a resident of one of these new buildings drops something from her balcony it will land in his garden.   The buildings look like their intended inhabitants will be poor and perhaps undocumented immigrants from the Asian republics. Although the area will soon house an additional 5,000 - 10,000 people, there don't seem to be plans to build new schools, roads, hospitals and other facilities.   What was once quiet country living will become " like living in a zoo," he says.   All this happened without notification. 

In the city apartment buildings are dotted with room air conditioners hanging out some windows, and small satellite dishes mounted nearby.   Individual flats in older buildings may have Soviet era rotting windows or European style replacements, but as far as I know everyone complains about building maintenance.   

Although flats may be privately owned, residents know that taking ownership of an entire building would make them responsible for long- neglected repairs of piping, roofing, and to deteriorated stairwells.  Residents pay monthly ever-increasing amounts to monopolistic companies, and what they get in return is an occasional paint job. 

Let me admit that it's always easier to point out problems than to fix them. I'm not providing a news scoop to say that Moscow has problems with traffic and housing. I just wish that we could see some evidence that Moscovites will have a less stressful life in the very near future.