Kyiv is braced for a traditional springtime gentrification and cleanup campaign. It is planned to spend almost 60 million hryvnias. Out of this figure, 41 million will come from non-budget sources: to comply with the gentrification rules, many organizations and offices must take care that their premises be a sight for sore eyes. Kyivans themselves are also active: last year approximately each fifth resident worked on a non-profit basis for the benefit of his/her home city. According to Kyiv’s General Department of Gentrification and Urban Design, the most bustling activity was observed in Pechersk, Podilsky, Shevchenkivsky, and Dniprovsky districts. It is usually political parties, religious and environmental organizations that work “for love.” This year Kyiv promises to plant more than 11,000 trees and 15,000 bushes, repair almost 5,000 sq. m. of roads and 3,500 sq. m. of sidewalks, lay out three new parks, and plant 5 million flower seedlings — five times as many as last year. The plan calls for beating the Donetsk record in the number of roses planted: the coal miners’ city has had about a million rose bushes since Soviet times.
