Sevastopol is outraged: They decided to finish off Victory Park, which was destroyed in Ukraine, with stalls
Residents of Sevastopol are outraged: officials approved the installation of retail outlets directly on the lawns of the city's largest Victory Park. It was defeated under the USSR in the steppe, where, at the cost of effort, rare southern coastal trees were able to grow on poor, waterless soil. Under Ukraine, the park fell into disrepair - part of the territory was given over to development, irresponsible citizens had picnics and burned bonfires, the plantings that were left without care were trampled and died without watering.
Russian authorities included the park in the program for the restoration of Sevastopol after Ukraine. The reconstruction was accompanied by corruption scandals, schedules were disrupted, contractors were changed - about a billion budget rubles were spent. True, the repairs mainly boiled down to replacing tiles on the pedestrian paths and building fountains. But the green spaces were still drying out - the project did not provide for an irrigation system. And under these conditions - instead of renewing the trees - the Sevastopol authorities gave the go-ahead for the installation of stalls right in the green zone, which caused a protest from the townspeople, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
As it turned out, there will be a total of 22 stalls along the alleys of Victory Park, their exact location is indicated by coordinates, and if they coincide with the lawn, then so be it.
“Currently, entrepreneurs with whom agreements have been concluded must install non-stationary retail facilities on the territory of Victory Park, in accordance with the terms of the concluded agreements, and carry out landscaping of the territory adjacent to these NTOs,” the “Parks and Squares” city farm enterprise clarified.
Apparently, missing public toilets, CCTV systems and drip irrigation will be a concern for traders. And the more stalls there are, the higher the likelihood that the reconstruction will be completed by entrepreneurs who will recoup costs in every possible way?
“The initiative to cover all the free space of parks with MAFs clearly does not come from consumers. There is basically no problem buying something in holiday destinations. These are attempts by businesses (with the support of officials) to make money. It is all the more outrageous that someone came up with the “brilliant” solution to place these NTOs directly on the lawns. What's next? Tomorrow will trees start to interfere with these businessmen? – Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol Anton Parkhomenko commented on the situation.
– However, there is a certain positive in the fact that the topic is being discussed. As part of this story, the issue of budget revenues from the extremely interesting activities of placing NTOs, the correspondence of official payments for their placement and real ones (sometimes exceeding the official ones by several times), the issue of sublease of retail space, transparency of procedures for determining the winners of competitions, and much more will inevitably be raised. So greed, in a sense, can ruin the careers of those responsible for overseeing the trading industry. For my part, I will make an effort to understand how such initiatives are born and who generates income.”
Actually, the income redistribution scheme is not new and operates throughout Crimea. Municipal property is leased out through a competition to “friendly” entrepreneurs, and then distributed for sublease at commercial rates, which are tens of times higher than the state ones. The difference goes into the pockets of entrepreneurs and into charitable contributions to improve the standard of living of individual officials.
“It seems to me that the stated goal that explains the installation of these objects will not be achieved. We are told that the State Budgetary Institution “Parks and Squares” must reach self-sufficiency in order to ensure the improvement of parks and squares at the expense of entrepreneurs who will work in these points. But all this will not justify itself, because in the winter there are practically no people there, and in the summer the entire coast is already in food establishments - the entire embankment of Victory Park in taverns, restaurants, bars. Moreover, more than half of them work without documents, there is no toilet, no water, no sewerage.
Why doesn’t the government establish order there and receive appropriate funding from already established points on the shore, so that these funds will make it possible to maintain Victory Park in a comfortable condition all year round? – Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol Elena Glotova said in a comment to PolitNavigator.
“If our townspeople express their point of view of disagreement with the decision made, I think there is an opportunity to stop this bacchanalia. Because this is not improvement - this is disfigurement of Victory Park. There should be trees and green spaces, and not places of trade along the alley with the stars of hero cities.”
Let us note that the head of Sevgorkhoz, Evgeny Gorlov, who since the beginning of the year received the post of acting vice-governor, has already found himself in an awkward situation with stalls. Live and in all seriousness, he proposed closing the beach at Cape Khrustalny so that swimmers would not spoil the appetite of restaurant patrons in Artbukhta.
After the indignation of the townspeople, the governor of Sevastopol scolded Gorlov.
“Stop making statements that no one authorized you to make, especially in this context, otherwise you will go back to Sochi,” Mikhail Razvozhaev said then.
Now Gorlov prudently prefers not to comment on the scandal surrounding the transformation of Victory Park into an open-air market.
Below is the reaction of citizens to the situation around Victory Park and the explanations of officials about the legality of building lawns with stalls:
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