- I don't think they're actually going to demolish those. Where are the money for that? They didn't even begin to explain how whis is going to work economy-wise

- I don't think they're actually going to demolish those. Where are the money for that? They didn't even begin to explain how whis is going to work economy-wise. - Now is precisely the worst time for projects of that scale. The only mass housing the modern Russia can build is 25-story ugly buildings without parking, trees, roads, schools but with chilling winds between the apartment towers. Urban planning and landscape design are completely nonexistent. - Compared to US or Western Europe, people are cramped into tiny apartments. No suburbia. No gardens. No neigbours. No roads. No backyard, no place to play. Walkable tho, if you are lucky. - The quality of urban layout was actually dwindling all the time. Stalinist 5-storeys were okay (green, near to public transportation, with shops), 5-storey block khruschevki were worse (no more shops, worse apartments), 9- to 17- block brezhnevki were even worse (further from city centers and public transit, snow hurricanes between tall towers, no infrastructure, no trees), and what gets built today is abysmal. - So are they going to replace okay-ish 5-storeys with this: http://varlamov.ru/2210604.html http://varlamov.ru/2210604.html - For some reason, people still buy those apartments. Even given choice. It's a complete mystery to me. If you ask a Russian which car he wants, he'd probably go for a sport BMW. But ask the same about apartments, and he'll promptly point to concrete coffin on the outskirts. Disclaimer: happy resident of an apartment in 1901 built house in SPb.