"Meeting the dawn" on the ruins: Green Embankment is not ready for Youth Day?

      Kirov is preparing to celebrate Youth Day for two days — June 27 and 28. According to the poster, one of the key attractions will be the Green Embankment. It is there that the "Dawn Meeting (18+)" will take place at 1:00 AM on June 27 — an event that is expected to be a romantic start to the holiday for hundreds of young Kirov residents. Fortunately, the city already has the official status of "Capital of Dawns" — it received this title in 2024.

      However, meeting the dawn at the Green Embankment now is quite an extreme mission. In the place where crowds of spectators are supposed to stand with a view of the river, they will be greeted not by a picturesque landscape, but by a killer staircase. A journalist from Newsler.ru strolled along the embankment the day before the holiday and was horrified.

      The staircase at the observation deck, which was once a favorite spot for romantic gatherings on benches, now resembles a battlefield. Potholes, chips, and broken slabs create a complete illusion that a tank has just rolled through this place. Moreover, some slabs are simply missing, and those that are still in place treacherously "sigh" and lift up when stepped on, eager to trip someone. Multicolored "patches" of new tiles, which were used to repair the old pavement, make the picture even messier. It feels like the staircase was repaired "by eye" and "with whatever was available."

      But that's not all. From the same observation deck, another staircase descends down to Pristanskaya Street — it leads to the lower embankment. There, Kirov residents and city guests can be literally a couple of meters from the water, romantically strolling along the shore, and, of course, also meet the dawn. However, the condition of this lower staircase is no better: the same chips, wobbly slabs, and signs of careless "patching." So, the descent down is akin to a game of roulette.

      And according to the organizers' plans, crowds of Kirov residents will flood to this splendor. The situation resembles a classic trap: if they don't injure themselves on this staircase (tripping over a wobbly slab), their mass presence will finish them off completely. Let's remember, this is not the first warning: back in May, a huge sinkhole formed on the Green Embankment.

      The administration, of course, suspects that one of the tourist attractions is "on its last legs." The foundation of the embankment improvement project even included the city's coat of arms — apparently, to make it look nice. However, what difference does it make what shape the embankment is in for an ordinary person who will walk along it rather than fly over it — is unclear. But the question of "when?" hangs in the air. Judging by how "quickly" the slabs are being changed at the observation deck, one can expect a long wait for transformation. This means that the risk of tumbling down the staircase on June 27 is a very real prospect for the city's top officials and ordinary spectators alike.