Retail Sprawl in Post-Soviet Urban Residential Communities: Case Studies of Saint-Petersburg and Vilnius

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Soviet urban residential communities have experienced rapid inflows of new urban functions. In this research project, two post-Soviet urban areas - Vilnius and St. Petersburg - are examined to indicate contrasting development paths over the last 30 years. The term “retail sprawl” describes correctly one of the important processes which have reshaped the former socialist microdistricts. We used data from the years 1987-1989, the last years of the socialist economy, and 2016 for 36 comparable research areas. By 2016 the structure of these formerly monofunctional areas made them functionally very similar to that of the urban core, including them in the intra-urban circulation of goods and capital, redirecting flows and making the city centre’s service burden much lighter. The results of the study provide a controversial contribution to the virtual discussion on universalism vs. uniqueness in post-socialist urban development. On the one hand, irrespective of contrasting “path-dependent” impacts, the structural results of retail development turned out to be generally identical in the studied cities at present, as well as in a prototypical North-American city 25 years ago. On the other hand, we found very pronounced differences compared to international patterns in morphological outcomes.

Commercial redevelopment of industrial and residential periphery of Russian metropolis: St. Petersburg, 1989–2017

“…These effects are illustrated by At the same time post-industrial transition had minor effect upon commercialization in residential communities, while shift towards "consumption society" was of primary importance there. As for the described "path-dependent" factors, Socialist policy of uniform "microrayon" planning has produced the unique starting ground for monofunctional residential areas with dense night time population and being almost uninhabited during work day time, and with very limited number of retail deliveries (Axenov, Krupickaitė, Morachevskaya, & Zinovyev, 2018). Specificity was added by the very fast pace of post-Second World War redevelopment.…”

“…patterns (Axenov et al, 2018). Absence of pre-planned commercial real estate floor area there contributed to a great extent to the specific outcomes of this process by the spreading of mobile trade forms as well as by specific conversion of the ground floors of the standardized multistoryed purely residential buildings into commercial ground.…”

“…. Necessity of such construction pace brought in the practice of standardized mass construction of high-rise housing built out of industrially prefabricated units and under similar ground plans, which made the morphology of these vast areas almost uniform(Axenov et al, 2018; Brade & Neugebauer, 2017).Post-socialist transformation also had quite a diverse impact on the commercial development of industrial and socialist housing zones. Share of the trade and services facilities located in St. Petersburg industrial zones in the city's total demonstrated permanent growth throughout all transformation period and went up by almost 3 times.…”

Ako často a ako dlho nakupujú spotrebitelia v nákupných centrách v Bratislave? Prístup koncentrických zón

“…Čas a priestor zohrávajú esenciálnu úlohu pri výskume maloobchodu a spotreby a sú príznačné pre geografický prístup (cf. Axenov et al, 2018, Mulíček, Osman, 2018.…”

Urban transformation of a post-soviet coastal city: the case of Saint Petersburg

“…In particular, we will mention the study by Aksenov et al (2006) on the transformation of the city's urban space in 1989-2002. Some scholars focused on the development of industry and tertiary sector in St. Petersburg addressing their impact on the urban environment (Aksenov et al 2001(Aksenov et al , 2016(Aksenov et al , 2018Bater 1980;Bater et al 2000). They demonstrated that the transformations that took place in the post-Soviet period influenced not only the architecture and topography of St. Petersburg but also the socio-geographical makeup of the population, by means of -among everything elsealtering the placement parameters of various social groups.…”