Mayor of Ulan-Ude Igor Shutenkov proposes to supplement the summer improvement of Soviet Square with new objects. The pavilions with horses alone seem to him to be too little to attract people, although the square clearly does not suffer from neglect. At the plenary meeting, he instructed city hall employees to finalize the summer concept for the territory.
Apparently, the current mayor decided to take away his reputation Gennady Aidaev, whom people remember with the phrase “at least he installed fountains.” But if previously large bronze sculptures were installed in Ulan-Ude (“Mother Buryatia”, “Mergen”, “Student”, “Running Fallow Deer” by a talented master Alexandra Mironova), a light and music fountain in the center of the theater square, but now, for example, the Living Room Rows are littered with various eclectic items from hacks. Most likely, the new decoration of the central square will follow the same path.
Although the “square” is called that for a reason, it should be an open area near government buildings; the winter town and fairs are holiday exceptions. For summer entertainment in cities, parks and squares are used, which are fenced off from roads and parking lots. In addition, the very installation of large-scale facilities in the city center can seriously complicate the already problematic traffic. Mayor Shutenkov relies on the experience of Moscow, but one can perfectly understand why the Moscow mayor can afford to “go crazy”, but the Ulan-Ude mayor cannot.
Apparently, the mayor’s office thought in advance about how to develop the Square of Soviets. With budget money we bought a whole zoo in addition to horses, a huge fountain, and so on. After all, the territory is not rubber, what else can the townspeople offer here when everything has already been decided without them. Unfortunately, the mayor’s office does not consider residents its partners. People can write their suggestions in the Active Citizen application. But a huge part of Ulan-Ude residents would still like to see orderly parking and dedicated lanes for public transport in the center, and not entertainment facilities.
Previously Babr wrotethat large summer structures from Soviet Square are stored in the winter on the street near a landfill and cattle burial ground in the Steklozavod microdistrict. The territory belongs to a city improvement plant, but outwardly it does not look like a warehouse at all, which is why social activists decided that the objects were literally being kept in a landfill. The careless attitude towards the structures was surprising, because the improvement cost the municipal budget quite a lot – more than 15 million rubles.
I would also like to note Mayor Shutenkov’s excessive love for monuments and flower beds. By summer it is proposed to plant up to two million flowers. First of all, flower beds will be laid out in parks and on main streets. But still, the city is not a cemetery; here, more attention to improvement needs to be paid to infrastructure, and not to flower beds. Green spaces are sufficient for landscaping, while flower beds are often associated with cemeteries. Perhaps they will become a symbolic gesture from Igor Shutenkov, who will nevertheless leave the post of mayor in 2024.