Research: Kyiv and Lviv go down in standard of living ranking

WATCH IN ENGLISH

Kyiv and Lviv have significantly downgraded in the standard of living ranking, while other Ukrainian cities have considerably improved their positions. Mykolaiv and Chernihiv showed the best results. This was stated by Ihor Tyshchenko, sociological group “Rating”, at a briefing held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

“Lviv has a huge problem with waste. The city sank from the third position to the ninth. Kyiv’s ranking decreased mostly due to the assessment of utility services and police: shortcomings in safety, heating and sanitation. Meanwhile, Chernihiv has greatly improved its infrastructure and all key activities in the humanitarian sphere. In Mykolaiv, only police have worse assessments, while all municipal, humanitarian spheres and partly infrastructure have improved,” said Mr. Tyshchenko. Residents of all regional centers give the worst marks to roads, accessibility for people with disabilities, and medicine.

People have different reasons for being proud of their cities. Residents of Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and Lviv are the proudest of their cities. “People in Lviv are most proud of the city as a cultural capital; their city keeps the culture and traditions of the region. There are cultural areas where people feel that their city is attractive to tourists. They are Chernivtsi, Odesa, Uzhhorod, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and Kyiv. And people in Khmelnytskyi are proud because the city is comfortable for living, has good living conditions. Industrial cities are proud because their cities are attractive to investors. This is, for example, Dnipro,” said Mr. Tyshchenko.

Attitude to the city authorities depends directly on a comfort level of living in the city. “The level of satisfaction with city authorities is the best in Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil. They also have good indicators in the rating. Kherson, Poltava, Sieverodonetsk and Uzhhorod have the worst indicators. They have the lowest level,” noted Ihor Tyshchenko. Mariupol, for example, improved its rating from eighth to sixth place. “This real rating includes citizens’ attitude. We take it as a basis. The city development strategy was based on this rating. We did the following three key things: launched the “New municipality” project aimed at openness and availability of power; launched the transport strategy; supported the communal reform,” informed Vadym Boichenko, Mayor of Mariupol.

The level of confidence in the police is 40%. “In general, confidence in the police is increasing. Whereas there are cities that improved the rating, there are also those that worsened it. The phenomenon is such that the cities, which were the first to introduce the new police, namely Kyiv and Lviv, worsened the rating. People got euphoric and overrated them. They trusted them without knowing why,” explained Mr. Tyshchenko. The higher incidence of corruption cases in the city, the higher pessimism of its inhabitants. Uzhhorod and Khmelnytskyi are leaders in corruption. “There is no trend here. Some cities improved the situation, some – worsened. But in general, the incidence decreases. However, Mykolaiv and Sieverodonetsk claim that they have no corruption,” he added.

17% of the townspeople have visited Europe within the past five years. Not all people travel even over Ukraine. “Uzhhorod residents visit other cities of Ukraine least, because they go to Europe. The same is true of Lviv. These cities are tourist; they take guests. Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Lutsk travel quite often, but mostly to the cities of Western Ukraine. The least visited cities are Sieverodonetsk and Uzhhorod. Besides, these cities do not promote themselves. Central Ukraine travels both to the west and east. People mostly travel to Kyiv and from Kyiv. Eastern and southern regional centers travel least over Ukraine,” noted Ihor Tyshchenko.