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| Source: CityLab / AP |
El Pais recently published an article by their excellent Moscow correspondent, Pilar Bonet, on the plans of Mayor Sergey Sobyanin to demolish 8,000 housing blocks from the Khrushchev era and replace
them with new buildings, re-housing some 1.6 million people.
Coverage of
this story in the English-language press has not mentioned the fears that
current residents have of being shortchanged – that they will lose the green spaces
and good services they currently enjoy and end up in high-rise "anthills"
on the periphery lacking basic services. Critics warn that the plans are being hastily pushed through with little control, and are open to abuses. Neighbors are currently organizing to protect their rights in this massive operation.
As in China,
a political-economic-military oligarchy feeds off the population, Matrix-style,
using them at will to increase its fortune and power. A demented new Feudalism.
In London
too, public housing estates are being robbed from poor residents by local
councils and profiteers.
Are we
headed in the same direction in the US (Trump, healthcare)? Or are we already there? When will the
pressure of rising land values in New York tempt the local government to sell off and
demolish its wealth of public housing?
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| Demolition of a Khrushchev-era housing block last October. Source; BBC / EPA |
Sources:
Pilar Bonet
El Pais, April 28, 2017
Mark Byrnes
CityLab,
The Atlantic, March 8, 2017
BBC
BBC News,
February 22, 2017
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