“We feel like hostages”: for more than 14 years Kirov residents have been unable to get through to the city administration.

      For 14 years residents of the building at 30b Krasnoarmeyskaya Street have been writing to the city administration and the territorial administration of the Pervomaisky District requesting that the road in the courtyard be repaired. As far back as 2011 the then acting deputy head of the administration, Sergey Torkhov, replied to the appeal (a copy is in the editors' possession) as follows:

      — The possibility of repairing the courtyard area of apartment building No. 30b on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street will be considered when formulating plans for 2012–2013. <...> Based on information from the management organization Limited Liability Company "Housing Management", we inform you that all the pits in the courtyard area have been filled with crushed stone.

      As a result, according to the residents' appeal to the city administration from May 2013 (also on file with the editors), "pothole repairs to the road surface were carried out within a few days after the appeal in October 2011, but only on the side of the building where the residential entrances are." It is not surprising that the reply did not satisfy the apartment owners, since it addressed not the cause of the problem but only its consequence. The essence of the problem is that the road around the building is a dead end, and on the first two floors the building houses Polyclinic No. 6 and a sports medicine department.

      "In letter No. 1713-01-25 dated 6.06.2013 the acting deputy head of the city administration, head of the territorial administration for the Pervomaisky District D.V. Ragozin proposes that maintenance of the road be carried out at the expense of the owners (residents) of the premises. Such an approach raises several questions. Why was the road in the courtyard of the building at 21 Proletarskaya Street repaired at the expense of the city budget, while the residents of our building must pay for the repair of our road themselves? Besides the residents of the building, the road is used by residents of nearby houses, as well as staff and visitors of the two medical institutions located in our building: Kirov City Polyclinic No. 6 of Kirov Clinical Hospital No. 8 and the Sports Medicine Department (children's sports dispensary). The road is used by various municipal transport, as well as construction machinery during the restoration of Kindergarten No. 12 at 164 Volodarskogo Street. The road serves as a parking area during events at the Youth Palace, Krasnoarmeyskaya St., 19 (the former Avangard Palace of Culture). So why should all the costs for this road be borne by the residents of the building at 30b Krasnoarmeyskaya Street?" — one of the owners complains in an appeal from 2015.

      Ten years later the situation has not changed. During that time cars of clinic visitors and residents/guests of neighboring buildings regularly block the exit from the yard. In winter the road turns into an impassable sheet of ice, and in summer into a huge puddle that can only be crossed in boots.

      Management companies say they "see no point" in investing in repairs because the plot is listed as the territory of another building. Those, in turn, claim that the road is used mainly by the residents of 30b and by visitors to the medical institutions, and therefore the repair is not their responsibility.

      According to residents, the greatest burden on the yard comes from Polyclinic No. 6 and the Sports Medicine Department. Dozens of cars arrive there daily, as well as garbage trucks and emergency vehicles. At the same time, residents say, representatives of the medical institutions "do not take part in votes on improvements, in the building's expenses, or in attempts to bring the territory into order."

      "We are hostages. The territory is not ours, we cannot repair it at our own expense, but we also have no right to close the passage because there must be access to the clinic. Yet they vote against any work," says the building's senior resident, Marina Nikolaevna.

      Residents tried to solve the issue themselves: they arranged for the pits to be filled with crushed stone, discussed installing a barrier gate, but without the clinic's permission this is impossible.

      Last week representatives of the building met with the deputy head of the administration, head of the territorial administration for the Pervomaisky District, Sergey Reshetnikov. According to the building manager, he promised to inspect the yard this week, request explanations from the management of the medical institutions, and consider including the territory in the "Vyatskiye Dvoriki" program.

      No one expects Reshetnikov's inspection to result in the hole being patched. What is the point of carrying out work when winter is already here? Meanwhile cars continue to scrape their undersides on the edges of the hole, and residents continue to spend energy, time, and money.