Nate Berg reports on a plan by federal and city government officials in Moscow to decamp from the central city for offices in newly annexed outer regions, and to redevelop the former office buildings as housing and hotels.
Why would officials vacate the center of the 865-year-old city? According to mayor Sergei Sobyanin, it's a lack of parking.
In an odd bit of reasoning, Berg reports that officials cite the fact that, "many federal workers travel to work by car, but few apartment dwellers in the city have cars. Sobyanin thinks it simply makes sense to put more car-less people in a parking-deprived area and take those dependent on their cars to an area where more parking can be made available."
The move has been made possible by a recent annexation and expansion plan that will increase the size of Moscow by 2.3 times. To solve the notorious traffic problems in the city, officials envision turning Moscow from a unicentric city into a polycentric model with multiple job centers, reports Berg.
Read the full story: Moscow Government Buildings to Be Converted to Housing
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