What Irkutsk Residents Ask Their Mayor

A press conference with Irkutsk Mayor Ruslan Bolotov is scheduled for early February. At such events, the mayor reviews the past year and answers questions, including pressing ones, from journalists. The editors of IRCITY.RU decided to ask their Telegram subscribers what question they would ask the mayor. More than 70 comments came in. We discarded provocations like «When will you resign?» and found that residents of the regional capital are most interested in problems with public transport, roads, and stray dogs.

Against the backdrop of funding problems for Irkutskavtodor, the roads this winter season are indeed strained. We even made a map of the most snow-covered places. After a flurry of complaints, Mayor Ruslan Bolotov finally explained what happened. According to him, due to the severe frosts in Irkutsk, equipment did not work, but problems are gradually being solved, and some ruts have even been cut. Nevertheless, this topic remains one of the most pressing.

«Hello, Ruslan Nikolaevich, I am concerned about the roads in Irkutsk,» — briefly wrote Nikolai Podoynitsyn, without specifying exactly what worries him.

«When will the city get a real owner? When will the construction lawlessness with endless high-rises on old utilities end? Will uncleaned roads be a yearly thing or will it get worse?» — openly complained Elena.

«When will the roads finally be cleaned?! There are mountains of snow on Zvereva Street, all the sidewalks near the school are piled up!» — suggested Natalya Solovyova.

«Is it true that we can expect the happiness of meltwater in spring?» — asked user Eddi Murfi, posing one of the most important questions.

«Snow is cleared and removed only from the roadway and sometimes from sidewalks. But most of the snow from sidewalks is dumped onto lawns, creating mountains of dirty snow! When will they be removed, or will we wait for spring and it will all end up back on the sidewalks as water and ice?» — echoed Irina.

«Remove unnecessary speed bumps,» — demanded Yevgeny Parshin.

Another problem often mentioned alongside roads is public transport. Incidentally, we recently studied the proposals of Moscow scientists for the development of urban transport in Irkutsk. And yes, there are a couple of revolutionary proposals.

«When will public transport be streamlined, with fewer commercial runs and higher quality municipal transport, as in all other Russian cities?» — asked Anna Makeeva, hitting the hot topic.

«When will the city be clean? When will the city get a truly thrifty owner? Housing and utilities do whatever they want, there is no control. Trams are about to fall apart on the move. The Youth Theater, Polyclinic No. 3, and the Kuznets House are about to collapse. It»s a disgrace to tourists and visitors,« — wrote Irina Laverina, though unfortunately not everything is within the mayor»s powers.

«Bring back tram No. 2 to its route! Stop discussing the elimination of trams in our city; instead, separate tram tracks from car traffic!» — rallied Irina a bit.

«Bring municipal public transport back to the city, remove commercial minibuses! Clean up buses on routes No. 80 and 480 to proper sanitary conditions! Before building endless high-rises, bring all heating mains and electrical networks into proper condition!» — demanded Igor.

«I would like the mayor and all members of the Irkutsk City Duma to ride public transport during morning rush hour from the left bank of the Angara River to the right bank across four key routes (Dam, Akademichesky, Glazkovsky, and Innokentyevsky Bridge) and see the condition of our transport and roads, where the traffic jams are, and what the courtyards look like. Live broadcast mandatory. When will the city administration stop issuing permits for new high-rises that crowd districts and microdistricts (including those on existing industrial sites — residential complexes »Akademik,« »Raduzhny Park,« »Geo,« »Avtograf,« »Avtor,« »ZhK na Kuzmikhe,« »1661« and others) without considering social infrastructure (schools, kindergartens, polyclinics, sports facilities) and road infrastructure?» — Yulia Kargopoltseva highlighted two problems at once.

«The city is dirty, very slippery, and we need more bridges across the Angara to relieve traffic pressure. New buses arrived not long ago, but they are already dirty, scary to sit on. We can»t solve this ourselves; learn from neighbors. In Angarsk, all buses are identical and clean; obviously, there is a boss there. And there are no dogs on the streets like in Irkutsk,« — suggested Olga.

«When will we have normal public transport, at least like in Angarsk? When will roads and sidewalks be properly cleaned? What about lighting in the evenings? The city is dark,» — added Sveta to the previous comment.

«Have you ever been to any cities besides Irkutsk? Same Krasnoyarsk? Did you feel the difference? When will Irkutsk residents get the same treatment? When will we have normal public transport? What about the interchange near Lermontov – Academichesky Bridge? If there is such a problem with buying out gas stations, maybe it wasn»t necessary to allocate land for building gas stations near major interchanges?« — asked Roman.

«When will the city start to transform? Roads repaired, cleaned timely. Street garbage collection, installation of urns. Landscaping, trimming bushes and trees. Construction of kindergartens and schools, because there are only new high-rises. Protection of green zones from vehicles. On Krasnoyarskaya Street, near house 39, after the opening of a pickup point, the entire green area got rutted by cars,» — wrote Alina.

And, of course, people also asked about stray dogs. Let us recall that a law on handling stray animals is currently being developed, and administrative liability has been established for those who abandon animals on the street. In addition, the Investigative Committee is investigating a criminal case on abuse of office against the head of the Irkutsk Region Veterinary Service, Sergei Shevchenko.

«When will the feral dogs be removed from the city center and fines introduced for feeding them with pots?!» — asks Irina indignantly.

«When will a municipal shelter for homeless animals be built? At least one for the entire region. Kittens were dumped in the entrance. Unfortunately, such things can be done with impunity here; shameless citizens are not prosecuted. Private shelters are overcrowded,» — adds Yulia Petrovna.

But besides that, there were both global and local questions.

«Why do ordinary pensioners (not war veterans) have not a single benefit in our city? Transport and summer cottage buses are especially important: the pensions of ordinary retirees are almost always small, and there are no benefits at all!» — complained Tatyana Yushkova.

«When will price increases end and pension increases be felt?» — asked Galina.

«Why are utility tariffs for non-profit organizations with legal entity status the same as for commercial ones?! At least initiate changes for shelters,» — asked Valentina.

«Street water pumps are all locked, there is no way to get water. Give people water, you damned traders,» — Alexey took offense.

«How many employees total are in the mayor»s office and city departments? Budget structure: building maintenance, salaries, current expenses. Which federal programs has the mayor«s office managed to win?» — Lis asked some interesting questions.

«Why are jobs with normal salaries not being created, and people go to earn money in the SMO?» — John Hughes asked unexpectedly.

«When will they start building schools?» — asks Svetlana Cheremisina.

But one question received a positive answer.

— When will Polyclinic No. 15 in Rabochy be opened? — asked Lidiya.

— Good afternoon! The planned opening date is before 1 September 2026. Currently, readiness is 93%, — representatives of the Ministry of Health answered her.