Location, Traffic Jams and Polycentric Development in Almaty

More on construction

There is a golden rule in real estate development, built on three Ls: location, location, location.

The notion of location is a relative one. In Astana, for example, the most attractive area used to be the right bank along Respublika Avenue. When everyone moved to the left bank, the left bank became the place to be, and the right bank turned into something of a periphery. In Almaty, the "golden square" was once considered the most valuable district; today it is everything above Al-Farabi along Dostyk.

In other words, location is determined not by the city itself but by the akimat, the residents and so on. But the akimat is also what destroys a location's appeal, through haphazard construction.

Samal, for example, is already becoming one of the least popular districts, because it is being hemmed in by traffic jams.

In the chase for returns on every square meter of land, with building permits obtained by various means, an enormous problem with traffic and mobility is being created.

The Al-Farabi–Dostyk intersection is one of the key ones, since it separates the upper part of the city from the lower. Yet this is precisely where construction is most intense. The people who live here, those who will live here and those who work here will never give up their cars, even if two of the three lanes are handed over to buses, because the residents of this area are very affluent.

A huge business center and a residential complex, a high-rise, are now going up at Dostyk and Al-Farabi. Along Al-Farabi stand Nurly Tau, then AFD Plaza, then Esentai, with AFD next to it. A large hotel has been built on Hadzhi Mukan, a large residential complex is under construction at the entrance to Gorny Gigant, and the list goes on and on. Where will this lead? To the point where driving from Esentai toward Medeu will take longer than driving from Esentai to Kaskelen.

After all, no one calculates the carrying capacity of the area, how many people live there, how many cars are registered, how many more will be added, and so on. This will turn the area above Al-Farabi along Dostyk from an elite district into one that is no longer the most elite.

To preserve the prestige of this district and make another one prestigious, we need to develop undeveloped areas, building infrastructure and roads. And in such areas we need to build not only housing but also offices and business centers. Each district of the city should have its own peripheral center, so that most people do not have to cross the entire city to get to work but can work in their own district. This solves not only the problem of traffic jams but also makes for more even settlement and development of the city.

In large metropolises the arrangement in which offices are concentrated in one place and residential neighborhoods in another does not work; it is more suitable for medium-sized and small cities.

Large cities need to develop smaller cities within them.

In our case, however, the outlying districts are not being developed, while the center is being turned into an eyesore.