The staff of the Center for Urban Development at the Almaty City Development Center conducted an extensive study (the presentation is available on the city's parks and squares. The purpose of these studies was not only to determine the level of comfort of Park areas, but also to make proposals for their improvement. We managed to persuade one of the authors of the study, Yerkanat Zaitov, to take time out for our interview, and he told us about the nuances of caring for urban parks, their present and future perspectives.
- At the moment there are 130 green areas in Almaty. Tell us, what do you think about them now?
- If we take on a five-point scale, I would put a solid three-point general condition of park areas. The state of the city parks is average. There are, of course, green areas and in good condition, there is also in unsatisfactory, which urgently need reconstruction. But at the same time, parks are popular, people in parks quite a lot. Citizens like to visit squares, arches, relax in them.
- Are there common problems faced by all parks? Or every of them has individual problems?
- The common problems are probably landscaping and systematics. Take, for example, the same names of parks. No one knows that the park, which is located near the hotel in Kazakhstan, is called «Friendship.» And people usually call it «Kok-tobe» or «Family Park.» Park «Southern» in the popular way has long been the «Alley of Graduates.»
- Then, maybe it makes sense to name parks the way they are called Almaty?
- Yes, there is already such an idea. Plans to organize and give conceptual names, which are popular among citizens, and then develop them according to the name. And the theme of the park will have to depart from the name. It would be appropriate to mention the phrase «as the ship will be called, so it will sail.»
- And in addition to the name of the parks, there are still some things that you would like to mention?
- Of course, there are still organizational and infrastructure problems. There are no appropriate road surfaces. Almost all parks do not have ramps. If you take, for example, family parks, it is very difficult for mothers with strollers to walk there because there are no conditions, ascents, descents. We are no longer talking about disabled people. No tactile tiles for the visually impaired. In addition, the impact on the landscaping in the parks. If there is such a concept that you cannot walk on the lawns, then you cannot walk in our lawns, because they simply do not exist. Although Almaty is such a city, whatever you plant will grow. The main thing is proper care, service and maintenance.
- Do we have parks in the city that meet all the requirements and are considered «standard«?
- In Almaty there is another problem - there are standards, the same building codes and rules, but for some reason they do nothing. The development of our parks contradicts the same standarts. We don't have a standard among parks in the city. At first glance, it may seem that everything seems to be normal, but still there are details that require improvement.
- How do you oversee the question of park compliance with regulations?
- Before you talk about responsibility, you need to understand that in the same standarts a lot of information, specific terminology. And in order for a person to read them all, and most importantly, also follow them, you need to spend a lot of time and effort. Therefore, 100% of them, of course, are not fulfilled and, accordingly, no one monitors this.
- At the recent Urban Forum, one of your proposals was to hand over park maintenance to solve all these problems that had been voiced earlier.
- We have so established that there are just parks, they are in the system, people know about them, but, unfortunately, they do not develop further. Unfortunately, the parks still do not develop their potential. The world experience of major cities says that parks can pay for itself from 20% and above, and Almaty has all the necessary conditions for this.
Perhaps, it is necessary to transfer the maintenance of parks into private hands, which will be more interested in the fact that parks, squares develop, filled with interesting events and people. All the necessary conditions and their limits of competence will be stipulated. Individuals could develop business in the parks and simultaneously care for the lawn, keep the park clean, replace outdated and unusable park furniture.
Park land remains in the city property, and on the basis of world practice, control over the implementation of the terms of the contract is left to the city administration. There is not enough interesting content that could be provided by individuals. From the park to the park people see only children's and sports fields. In fact, there is an opportunity to do yoga outdoors, dance, organize book clubs.
- Let's say there's only one park in the green areas of Nauryzbay. Well, in General, about green zones, do we not have enough of them?
- Yes, if we take the standarts again, we should have 10 sq.m of green areas per person. It turns out that for 1.7 million residents there should be 1700 hectares, and if we take the daily population that enters the city every day, this is about 2.5 million people and 2500 necessary hectares. Now the total area of green areas in Almaty is 1,355 hectares, which includes Kok-Tobe Park and Medeu Park. Given that Medeu is quite far away, and we are now talking about parks that are within walking distance, this is still minus 655 hectares. It turns out that for all residents of the city of Almaty, without taking into account daily arrivals, there are only 700 hectares of green areas, while according to the norms there should be 1700.
- Then the question arises, if there is a shortage of parks, do we have enough areas where these parks can be broken down?
- There are a lot of territories. However, it is necessary to clarify that usually when we say the word «park«, in thoughts formed a picture of the park with our usual paths, trees, benches and on this all, perhaps. In our presentation, we showed that parks can also be artificial, integrated into the urban environment and be a recreation area. Such examples are now a bunch, take the same New York, where the resting place was organized between houses. And this is literally 2-3 meters wide and the length of the whole house. They broke the park, made paths, put benches and mounds of slides. The result was a cozy little park.
- So it was so that our parks are visited more often in the warm season, and are there any successful cases when they were in demand in winter?
- The most popular case for parks in winter is to break the ice rink. In our country, people skate either in shopping centers or on Medeu. Next year, the southern Park will be reconstructed and we want to have a similar ice rink there, the territory of which allows you to make an artificial lake.
Another example is skate parks. After the same tram depot competition, we had proposals to organize skate parks. A lot of young people are now riding in front of the Auezov Theatre on Abay Street, in the old square, in the new square. The main thing is to clean in time and such leisure can also be year-round for parks.
- The question of lawns. It so happened that lawns are a «forbidden» territory for walking...
- We have a rich list of prohibitions, which I think have already been imprinted in the minds of the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space. To overcome this template ban, probably, will be very difficult, but as an option, we want to plant a lawn and right there to drive the signs «You can walk on the lawn.» People could have picnics, recreation.
- Probably, the point of the ban is that it is worth a little walk on our lawns, then after a while there are splashes in our lawn. And let's say in Central Park in New York, the lawn remains a lawn, despite the fact that the people they are actively using. Is this some kind of special technology, maybe a good one?
–I think it's just a matter of basic maintenance. What is the grass? This is primarily watering, feeding and processing. Unfortunately, in Almaty, herbs are not given much attention. According to our surveys, it became clear that only flowers are watered and cared for. We don't have the concept of lawn care. Although if we take the old Almaty, this role was performed by ditches, providing artificial irrigation.
- Do we have a standard for lawn care?
- No, we only have service standards that consider certain hours and how to mow. But they are almost 30 years old. The last regulation was issued in 1987. And it was released in accordance with the needs of the time. Now the needs are quite different, and the norms are used by the same old ones. They use it not because they want to use it, but because there is no more alternative. We need to update or create new regulations that will be relevant to today's requirements.
- Talking about trodden paths on lawns, we remembered an interesting detail of your presentation. You said that well-trodden paths in parks are essentially convenient walking paths. Is it possible to make these most well-trodden paths full-fledged paths?
- It is possible to make a path, but for some reason they are not made there. To make good projects you need to become a consumer yourself. This applies to both architects and landscape designers. In our country, all this is solved from the top-down position. Upstairs come up with a plan, design, draw and pave the tracks, and in practice it turns out that people needed tracks in a different place and they «create» their own. First of all, it is necessary to use the system «bottom up» to be based on the needs of the people themselves, who will use the paths and parks.
- We talk all the time about redeveloping and building new parks. But overboard, there is still an important question about the maintenance of future and existing parks. Are there any regulations, even European ones, that define how to take care of the Park and guarantee that the Park will not become obsolete within the next ten years?
- There is a great example from the Strelka Institute of media, architecture and design in Moscow. They have issued a 500-page regulation on landscaping. We don't have that. Whereas the quality regulation is very necessary. And in this document everything is very clear.
Existing regulations in Almaty were developed in 1987. There are written only moments of watering and haircuts. For example, you need to cut trees. The problem is that there is no system that reflects information about changes, there is no standard of how many, for example, benches should be. Also, there is no base, which shows all the changes made, for example, how many changed benches, how many of them are old, new and whether there are among them requiring repair.
- Are you proposing to create an information system or database?
- Yes. It's a geographic information system. We are now raising this issue. It will be not only in the parks, but in general throughout the city. A system that is layered. Each layer has its own information. If you take layers of parks there should be layers of trees, shrubs, burrows, benches. The information will be clogged, and edited according to the changes. Everything will be stored in the database. And the person of interest will always have up-to-date information.
When we talk about a smart city, first of all this concept implies a «smart» map, in which we can immediately see problems. Now we do not have such a card at all. We can't keep track of what happens, where and how. And there is a great need for that.
- At this stage, at the time of completion of the survey of the green areas of the city, can the citizens somehow help in further development?
- Of course, that's what we were created for. Now they can offer their ideas, concepts. Next year, the possibility of remodeling several squares in the city is being considered. To do this, we want to hold a large competition on the type of past competition to create a public space on the territory of the tram depot, but only in the parks. First of all, both the city and parks are created for people and therefore their opinion is very important. Naturally, we are not talking about Disneyland, but we are referring to reasonable proposals that will really affect the development of parkland.
- What is the future of your research?
- Our study was taken seriously. At the beginning of the interview we talked about the principle of bottom-up development, about understanding what is needed for residents and parks, and how to do it better. And if initially we were towed on the spot because it was difficult for us to understand each other, now the situation is changing.
- Is this the first time that a bottom-up approach has been taken?
- In fact, yes. As well as parks, and the same competition of public space on the territory of the tram depot. This is indeed a precedent. When such a document went to the mayor's table, we were told: «Yes it is necessary, let's work!»
- When do we wait for the first results?
- We have prepared the project for the South Park and with our proposals to bring the project to the public for discussion. We want to say: «Guys, look, this is currently being discussed, offer your ideas.» There is a planned reconstruction of several city squares and parks, which were proposed primarily by the Department of natural resources. We will have preliminary projects on our side. Most likely, we will announce a competition, start connecting people and ask them what kind of Park they would like to see.
