Here's a picture I snapped on the way to the gym this morning. Okay so maybe it wouldn't win any photography awards, but it shows a pair of heat pipes snaking through the courtyard. This is a really common site in Russia, but it was one of the things that surprised me the most when I first came. Heat pipes--ranging from big, city-wide distribution lines to little feeders serving individual buildings--usually run above ground here in Russia.
Well I should back up. Why are there heat pipes snaking around the city in the first place? These pipes are part of a district heat system that serves the whole city. Soviet urban planning was all about centralization and standardization, and so it is fitting that heat is generated in one central plant to distributed around the city. In Moscow, 96% of buildings are connected to the central heat system, and I'm sure the figure is similar here in Vladimir. These systems exist in American downtowns and on college campuses, but America's spread-out pattern of development and strong concept of private property ownership preclude the development of district heat systems on a large scale in the US.
It's not surprising that these pipes look a little on the shoddy side. Russia also faces serious infrastructure problems. How do you maintain infrastructure that is rapidly approaching the end of its design life? How do you privatize a pattern of land use and service delivery that was designed not to be private? How do you oversee utility companies operating in an environment of serious corruption and cronyism? Russia's infrastructure--and city utility systems in particular--is a playground for corrupt businessmen: They defer system maintenance, raise rates, and use cheap materials, and then they export the money to foreign bank accounts and bribe government officials to look the other way. The result? Utility system breakdowns are common, and it's always a last-minute scramble in October to patch up the last holes in the heat system before the winter. Russians really dislike utility companies and see them as a bunch of money-grubbing crooks, which might not be too far from the truth, at least as far as the top management is concerned. While all those managers are relaxing in Thailand with money kept safely away in their Cypriot bank accounts, regular Russians are stuck with crumbling infrastructure.
Well I should back up. Why are there heat pipes snaking around the city in the first place? These pipes are part of a district heat system that serves the whole city. Soviet urban planning was all about centralization and standardization, and so it is fitting that heat is generated in one central plant to distributed around the city. In Moscow, 96% of buildings are connected to the central heat system, and I'm sure the figure is similar here in Vladimir. These systems exist in American downtowns and on college campuses, but America's spread-out pattern of development and strong concept of private property ownership preclude the development of district heat systems on a large scale in the US.
It's not surprising that these pipes look a little on the shoddy side. Russia also faces serious infrastructure problems. How do you maintain infrastructure that is rapidly approaching the end of its design life? How do you privatize a pattern of land use and service delivery that was designed not to be private? How do you oversee utility companies operating in an environment of serious corruption and cronyism? Russia's infrastructure--and city utility systems in particular--is a playground for corrupt businessmen: They defer system maintenance, raise rates, and use cheap materials, and then they export the money to foreign bank accounts and bribe government officials to look the other way. The result? Utility system breakdowns are common, and it's always a last-minute scramble in October to patch up the last holes in the heat system before the winter. Russians really dislike utility companies and see them as a bunch of money-grubbing crooks, which might not be too far from the truth, at least as far as the top management is concerned. While all those managers are relaxing in Thailand with money kept safely away in their Cypriot bank accounts, regular Russians are stuck with crumbling infrastructure.
No comments:
Post a Comment