PiterEthnoExp. Part I. The Differences Between Saint Petersburg and MoscowMapOctober 27 ... November 19, 2013 A poet, an urban studies expert, an illustrator, a cameraman, an acrobat, a sommelier, a photographer and an ethnographer set off to study Saint Petersburg (or Piter, as it’s called for short here) as part of yet another Ethnographic Expedition. ![]() Our means of transportation: two fabulous FAW cars from China, decorated with stickers advertising the expedition’s partners and sponsors. ![]() I’ve always been interested in the details that differentiate Saint Petersburg from Moscow. I try to find something new or interesting every time I come here. And now I finally have an entire three weeks to study the most beautiful city in Russia. ![]() The two capitals speak somewhat different languages. They have different words for shawarma, chicken, buckwheat, white bread, black bread, donuts, front entrances, curbs, service roads, highway overpasses, metro lines, end-of-the-line stops (for trams), monthly tickets, kiosks, public gardens, erasers, tower blocks with one entrance, currency exchanges, short coats, turtlenecks, baby bottles, portfolio reviews, saying something is forbidden, and subway announcements (“Stand clear of the closing doors, please. The next stop is ...” in Moscow vs. “The next stop is.... Stand clear of the closing doors, please” in Saint Petersburg). Saint Petersburg was designed and built from the ground up, and it turned out nicely, which can’t usually be said for other cities planned from scratch (such as Brasilia, Canberra or Astana). The entire city is flat as a board (which is very convenient for biking). All the streets are straight as an arrow. A regulation—which is actually observed here—requires all buildings on the same street to be the same height, and this makes it feel even more streamlined. Saint Petersburg is a city of perspective views. ![]() It’s also a city of archways. ![]() Many buildings have curved facades to break up the uniformity. ![]() The rooftops are incredibly beautiful, and any Piter native has been up on them thousands of times. Muscovites, meanwhile, rarely have similar stories to share and usually attribute them to a stroke of luck. If you manage to find a spot that’s very high up, you never want to leave. ![]() There are many light-well courtyards. ![]() There are many courtyards in general. And they’re usually numbered. ![]() Courtyard 3 These days, people like to lock their courtyards with magnetic lock gates. In order to prevent someone from simply reaching through the gate and pressing the “open” button inside, the button is usually placed a couple of meters away from the entrance and shielded with a metal plate, which further dissuades those hoping to reach it with a long stick. ![]() Since the total area of the courtyards is larger than the area of the street-facing facades, most businesses are actually located within the courtyards’ depths. Saint Petersburg’s main detail is large signs with big arrows and the words “in the courtyard” next to every archway. ![]() Notary in the courtyard. Express photos, copy center in the courtyard If you spot a promising parking space, chances are it’s a driveway into a courtyard through an arch. No standing here. ![]() There’s a full-flowing, broad river running through the city, as well as numerous canals and smaller rivers, not to mention the outlet to the sea. In Saint Petersburg, water runs through the streets; in Moscow, it runs from the tap. ![]() This explains why no one here is surprised by the sight of harbor cranes and big ships (which are the reason the bridges are raised). ![]() A few places still have the slanted exterior display windows that were very trendy in the 1960s. ![]() Every bridge has a sign with its name. ![]() First Zimny Bridge The insanity of the building numbering system blows Moscow out of the water. 35 Zagorodny Avenue, building 3, structure N. How’s that for you? ![]() At some point the city’s officials decided to copy the street signs in Paris (or Bucharest), but failed to grasp why the signs also display the numbers of nearby buildings. So they just started writing the next even or odd number, although it’s actually supposed to be the number of the building on the nearest corner. ![]() A huge number of intersections aren’t designed for pedestrians to cross. You want to cross, but you’re not allowed to. ![]() Traffic police sit in elevated glass booths. ![]() Storm drain inlets and grates are marked with yellow. ![]() Saint Petersburg is the cradle of the revolution. There are still some real proletarians here, workers who will give their lives for the steam trains they continue to service. ![]() Construction sites must always have blue fences. If the fence isn’t blue, then it’s either not a construction site or not Saint Petersburg. ![]() Saint Petersburg’s zebra crossings are always split into two halves, even when the halves are so wide that you can’t see one from the other. ![]() There are bumper bollards in front of every archway. They’ve been fulfilling this function since the times when it was horse-drawn carriages messing up their turns through the archways. ![]() A decrottoir is often available at the front entrance for your convenience. ![]() Rainwater drainpipes have a special stone niche underneath to catch the water that flows out (in order to prevent the water from boring out a similar niche right in the sidewalk). ![]() A city ordinance requires all rainwater drainpipes to be painted the color of the building. Moscow is sorely in need of a similar rule. ![]() Electrical cables enter buildings through their facades. ![]() The sidewalks rival Europe’s in their beauty. ![]() Pretty fences (just like the ones in Rome) separate pedestrians from the roadway. ![]() Saint Petersburg has a huge number of so-called creative clusters—run-down buildings where graphic artists, fashion designers and hipsters of all stripes set up studios and sell their creations. Moscow still hasn’t realized that clusters like this attract brainpower to the city and raise real estate prices in surrounding areas. ![]() The city also has an enormous number of hostels, some of which are located inside completely unbelievable (and similarly run-down) buildings. ![]() There’s such an overabundance of beauty here that no one gets upset if a former cultural center is turned into a market. Please welcome backpacks, fishing tackle and coins to the stage! ![]() All the post boxes still bear the Soviet state emblem (like in Yelabuga). ![]() Incredibly beautiful poles for traffic and street signs are being installed downtown. Piter has always had great taste when it comes to various poles and supports. ![]() But there are also negative examples. At some point some idiot in Moscow came up with the idea of wrapping the bottom two meters of lampposts with wire mesh. Here, they go all out and extend the mesh to five meters high. ![]() People will still keep posting flyers as long as they have no other accessible means of advertising themselves. Most of the flyers in Saint Petersburg are for prostitutes (Moscow has a special magazine for this purpose called Flirt, which its distributors leave under the windshield wipers of parked cars). ![]() Wife for an hour, 24 hours. New!!! Love is waiting Any given detail in Saint Petersburg will usually be prettier, if not more functional, than in Moscow. The mounts for traffic signs alone are priceless. ![]() Instead of repeater traffic lights on the other side of the intersection (like in Moscow), Saint Petersburg prefers to use smaller repeater lights below the main ones (like they do in France). ![]() The traffic lights have countdown displays and loudspeakers at the top, which harass the city’s poor residents with an annoyingly nasal, provincially-accented female voice. ![]() Bus and tram schedules are printed on paper and glued right over the old ones. ![]() The archaic tradition of equipping trams with color-coded lights to represent route numbers is alive and well here. Route 25 is red and green. This system was originally created for switchmen, who needed to be able to see which way to turn the switch points from a distance. ![]() Then passengers got used to the color-coding, and now it’s just a matter of principle. Some Saint Petersburg tram depots can’t stand this system, because you always have to keep color gels handy and make sure the lights are up-to-date. Modern technology has somewhat reduced the problem: with LEDs, all it takes to change the color is the push of a button. ![]() All medium-size buses have the route number outlined with yellow LEDs. ![]() Trolleys have 7-segment displays for the route number. ![]() A random subway car sitting in the parking lot of a business center. ![]() If you suddenly wake up on the subway and have no idea what city you’re in, look down: if you see triple hatches, you’re in Saint Petersburg. ![]() One of the stations has a track without any rails. It’s best to be sober when you lay your eyes on this. ![]() Every subway car has an extra-incomprehensible emergency exit diagram. ![]() A special device between cars prevents people from falling off or jumping on. Moscow somehow manages to get by without. ![]() The last 100 meters of tunnel before the station are painted white so that the conductor’s eyes have time to adjust to the change in brightness. ![]() In other words, the light at the end of the tunnel comes sooner in Saint Petersburg than it does in Moscow. |
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october–november 2013
PiterEthnoExp. Part I. The Differences Between Saint Petersburg and Moscow
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PiterEthnoExp. Part III. The Fate of Shit |
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