Moscow News
www.MN.Ru
August 23, 2007
Privatization Fears at Gorky Park
By Anna Arutunyan
City authorities have a reconstruction plan in the works for Gorky Park that has Muscovites and some city officials worried that one of the capital's classic attractions may turn into an investor's free-for-all. Russian media last week reported that the park is slated to be privatized, with up to 75 percent going to unnamed investors with little incentive to preserve land that could be used more lucratively for office and residential high rises. Moscow authorities denied the reports, but have not answered the question of where they will get funding for the overhaul.
A recent article in Kommersant cited a source close to the city administration as saying that Moscow authorities have plans to turn the park - a public institution - into public stock. According to the unnamed source, 25 to 50 percent of the stock will belong to the mayor's office; the rest will be sold off to an investor.
The paper cited another source that said the city had decided to turn to private investors once it understood that it could not finance the massive reconstruction. What this means, the paper went on to speculate, is that the investors might use the territory to build offices instead of improving public attractions.
Spokesmen for the city mayor's office could not be reached for comment. Nor could the press office of the Moscow Property Department, the city government agency that currently owns and operates the park.
The Moscow city administration has been under fire in the past for a penchant to build wherever it can on land that is becoming increasingly expensive. Reports of a privatization caused an outrage even as city authorities did little to dispel them. "We need to work together to keep this from happening," Russian Environment Inspectorate head Oleg Mitvol was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying. "Otherwise it will be a crime against our children. The Inspectorate will do everything to stop this disgrace if they start trying to build anything in Gorky Park."
Moscow City Duma Deputy Sergei Mitrokhin told The Moscow News that he was asked to join a special council being set up with plans to fight the privatization, but added that the council had not been created yet.
However, the mayor's office has obliquely denied plans to privatize the park.
"Many make these statements," First Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin told journalists. "You should listen less to these kinds of statements," he said, referring to the Kommersant article. "We should orient ourselves around the general plan for Moscow development, which clearly sets out what should be built where."
Indeed, at issue is a Nov. 2006 city resolution laying out reconstruction plans for the park. The document, however, does not detail how much the project will cost nor who will pick up the tab. With a new music hall, a hotel with up to 150 rooms, and an underground parking garage for up to 660 cars and many other improvements to be made, it seemed unlikely that the Moscow Property Department, which, according to Kommersant, gets just $1 million a year in income from the park, could fund the reconstruction.
"Maybe it's a great idea to reconstruct the park," Yelena Ivanova, an aide to Deputy Sergei Mitrokhin, told The Moscow News. "The city does not have the funds to keep up the park." But she criticized the city administration for keeping the legislative body out of the decision-making process. "The law on privatization states that the Moscow City Duma has to vote on the administration's resolutions. But we're not told what it will cost or who will fund it. The executive branch just carries it out without the Duma's approval."
By Monday there was a clearer signal from the city that it had no plans to build high rises in place of park attractions. "The park has such status that we can't even talk about building apartments on the territory," Alexander Kuzmin, Moscow's chief architect told RIA Novosti.
Operating in Moscow since 1928, Gorky Park, located just south of Moscow's Garden Ring along the Moscow River, includes an ice rink, an amusement park, and numerous venues for children's activities spread out over some 300 acres.