| This summer I have noticed a very positive development
in the city that at
first glance could be taken as a sign that St. Petersburg is getting close
to matching the European standards
that Governor Valentina Matviyenko has alluded to as the goal of her
administration.
Surprisingly enough, a clean up of dirty yards in the city center has
started. This year City Hall plans to spend 300 million rubles ($10.3
million) to put in order 10 yards on Nevsky
Prospekt and clean up and paint 46 buildings on the city's main
thoroughfare.
I have also noticed quite a lot of work being done in some yards on
Gorokhovaya Ulitsa, one of the dirtiest areas in the heart of St. Petersburg
close to Sennaya Ploshchad. And even
half of the yard of the apartment where I live near Ploshchad Truda, which
looked as if it had been abandoned for future generations to deal with,
suddenly received a new layer of
asphalt one day this month.
Even though, it covers only a half the yard, this is better than nothing.
That's what I thought until I saw a huge pile of excrement between the
first
and second floors of my staircase, which was obviously left by a
construction worker who had been paid
from the city budget to ennoble my living area. Good job.
It would be hard to imagine seeing the same thing on the staircase of
a
residential building in some European city, such as Vienna, London or
Prague. My imagination might be bad, but
it couldn't go that far.
A couple of weeks later, European standards seemed to have moved even
farther away in my mind after I became a victim of a booby trap left by
some
dog right by the entrance to the
staircase. Only a puddle, that appeared early morning in one of the numerous
holes in newly laid asphalt, saved my shoe.
Unfortunately, the presence of such booby traps is one of the key
indications how far St. Petersburg and its residents are from the state
Matviyenko wants the city to be in.
More than three years have passed since the Legislative Assembly took
action
to force dog owners to equip themselves with small shovels and paper bags
to
clean up their pets'
droppings. The idea died shortly after it was introduced as a bill in
2001,
because legislators had no right to pass more or less sensible fines on
this
matter, according to the old federal
Administrative Code that was still in force that year.
The new code says nothing that suggests the hands of officials are tied
on
such a matter.
This year, City Hall together with the local veterinary service is about
to
make another move. At the end of October, the Legislative Assembly expects
to receive from City Hall a bill on
keeping and protecting pets in St. Petersburg that introduces some rules
and
fines for people who like their dogs more than other citizens.
It is not clear why, but the authorities are cagey about announcing
the
exact size of the planned fines. Though Legislative Assembly officials
are
quite skeptical about discussing
possible fines, the main question will be whether the police will bother
to
tackle such minor violations as fouling the sidewalk.
"Just try to imagine a policeman trying to get a fine from a Caucasian
sheepdog," Yabloko member Boris
Vishnevsky said. "Would he be brave enough to demand
money while standing close to a creature that is ready to eat him?"
"It would be possible if it was a poodle of some sort, but I don't
think it
would work in general," he added. "You won't assign a policeman
to follow
each dog in the city."
Vishnevsky has a dog himself, so maybe this is the reason for his
skepticism. I don't have one, so the only conclusion I have looking at
the
city's pavements and yards is that the city
parliament should pass a law that would introduce very high fines for
dog
owners who ignore the interests of their neighbors. Maybe this would also
be
the way to influence the
development of the civility for some construction workers who put themselves
on the same level as pets.
See also:
the original at
www.sptimes.ru
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