Spatial change of Lviv in the post-Soviet period and their assessment by the residents

Abstract

To determine the tendencies of reflection of the socioeconomic and spatial changes of the post-Soviet period in the minds of Lviv residents, to outline the factors influencing the transformations that are taking place. Historical development of Lviv – a multifunctional city with almost 800 years of history, cultural and educational center of Ukraine, was artificially transformed into an industrial center in the Soviet period. Transformations of Lviv image of the post-Soviet period were investigated on the basis of official statistics, analysis of town-planning projects and selective urban inventory. The actions of the authorities in influencing the changes in the image of the city are analyzed on the basis of approved strategic documents of development, as well as the activities of local self-government bodies. During the last three decades, Lviv has lost its competitiveness, and there is a decrease in population due to both natural growth and migration; increasing concentration of people and business functions in its central part; problems of transport and preservation of the historical environment of the city are aggravated; tourist anthropogression on the city is growing and tourist erosion is increasing. Assessments of an image change in residents’ perceptions are analyzed by comparing their own research and questionnaires. 200 surveys were conducted, the results of which are as follows: 1) An increase in the disorder of urban life and an increase in its intensity were recorded; 2) с the spatial image of the city is associated mainly with the growing importance of the old part of the city (localization of more and more services); 3) post-industrial territories are treated as places where the crisis of the city is visible; 4) the symbols of the city are unchanged, new ones are not named; 5) areas of high attractiveness in functional, social and aesthetic relations are distinguished, as well as low attractiveness spaces. The spatial changes of Lviv in the post-Soviet period are generally assessed as critical. The residents point out that Lviv does not create a sacred image anymore, it loses the aura of its intellectual and cultural center; the center is not attractive to architecture and history, but to restaurants that have transformed former art salons and bookstores; architectural identity and uniqueness are lost; space polarization is deepening (expensive commercial housing adjacent to neglected public spaces); commerce with a devastating excitement about the existing spatial order burst into the historical environment. The lack of a unified vision of city development and management of urban planning processes «in manual mode» causes chaotic and unsystematic changes that destroy the spatial structure, principles of city development and causes irreparable mistakes in its construction then copy it into the registration web field.