Moscow City: Reveling Anything Can Happen After Dark

Moscow City, sometimes referred to as, “a city within a city”, has a new ambitious multibillion-dollar project aimed at creating a financial district along the lines of the city. Plans unveiled less than a year ago to build a glittering new neighborhood of apartment towers, skyscrapers, schools, parks and shopping malls on the west side of Moscow, believing that their new project will create jobs and open new construction development ideas. However, despite the new project geared towards helping the economy and creating a better night life, many key arguments have risen and plans have come to a halt due to the financial crises happing around the world.

Designed by U.S. architects KPF Associates (Kohn Pedersen Fox) envisions that the new city will have a total of 1,800 apartments in twenty buildings. Ten towers of up to twenty-four stories each will be located directly along the river, while ten smaller, "European-style" buildings will be scattered throughout the complex, which will include several office buildings. With that being said these plans will have a combination of restaurants, retail, a movie theater, loft-type offices or studios, and residential apartments.

Today, developers are beginning to design new architectural icons, on enormous scales to symbolize Russia’s new wealth, drawing from their mass amount of natural resources. According to National Geographic, “there are more billionaires in Moscow than in any other city in the world”. Millionaires they say are as common as “pigeons”. These Moscow planners and developers are trying to prove to the rest of the world and to Russians themselves that this country can compete with anyone. Moscow’s new ambitious plan, hopes for a more popular night life, free from violence, drugs, and prostitution. Creating their own Las Vegas sort of speaks. One aspect the developers face is time and money, and with the world’s current situation, money is a very important factor.

Although there are many advantages to this new development, there will always be some skeptics, who claim there are a number of serious disadvantages as well. For example, the key question that arises is can Moscow drift away from the violence that goes on after dark? In comparison, Las Vegas has the lowest crime rate in the world. You ask yourself why that may be. One can sum up the argument that there are so many witnesses around it would be hard to get away with such violent acts. In Vegas, people do not sleep at night; therefore there is constant awareness around the city. Moscow however, around two in the morning, Moscow stands still, the vast majority of people who are out partying are either heading home or where they need to be at the end of the night. The coming and going of travelers and people are hidden and the only people roaming the dark streets are drunks, homeless, and the ones selling themselves for sex. It is common for street kids to engage in gang activity battling for shelter. Prostitution on the other hand has a reputation for breaking clonidine pills into powder creating a date rape drug by spiking client’s drinks. This then causes the clients to pass out getting robbed of all their possessions and with a still corrupt militia they can do nothing.

Looking at the other factor keeping this development from being built is the impact of the crisis. It is clearest in real estate construction, which happens to be one of the fastest growing segments of the economy over the past few years, but also one of the most heavily dependent on bank loans. With credit disappearing, other developers have joined in announcing plans to halt construction around Moscow. Currently, Russian developers have begun to slow further expansion on their new project and have started projects to raise cash for financing towards their development. For the first time, these Russian based development companies will decide by the end of the year on whether or not to sell market shares to the public in order to help finance the new project. The one thing these big developers have is good credit history which will be seen by banks and in the long run they will be backed up.

Will the new plans for Moscow be the future of this dark city? Will these new construction buildings be the symbol of Moscow’s wealth? Or will it be another opportunity for violence to pick up at night? Admittedly, Moscow has a great opportunity for their economy but the main issue is their history and the fact they live in a black and white picture. Their history is very straight forward and it seems they are gradually trying to create color for the people. However, there is no reason to assume that they can not establish a Las Vegas type city with the money they have. One thing is certain the world is in a tough situation financially and Moscow has to deal with a lot of issues from keeping them from continuing their progress. Maybe Moscow can overcome all the negative consequences that happen in the night and truly begin a new future that is lively and everyone can come together and have a system that is not corrupt, Moscow has the money they just need time.