LYSYCHANSK LYSYCHANSK HAPPINESS INDEX
METACITY: EAST
LYSYCHANSK HAPPINESS INDEX The modern world is made of measurements and numbers: we try to measure and mathematically calculate everything to gain confidence that the conclusions we make are correct. We define the welfare level and living standards of people by the GDP level, and we relate happiness directly to the level of income.
When we asked residents of Lysychansk what they lack in Lysychansk or what they need for happiness, we heard the same answer over and over again: “Provide people with jobs.” Is it the only challenge for the city? Does work really equal happiness? In fact, an abstract concept like “happiness” has deep socio-economic roots, since the ultimate goal of most people on the planet is not to be rich, but to be happy and healthy. Since 2012, the United Nations has launched an initiative to annually evaluate the world level of happiness in the framework of the World Happiness Report program. And some of the factors that influence the happiness level and form the index of happiness, are the following:
– life satisfaction; – duration of life; – use of natural resources. Why do we start with happiness? Because this is what Lysychansk generally lacks to find its own uniqueness, development direction, and prosperity. And we can see that the low level of happiness is not only dependant on the economic well being, but also depends on the difficult ecological situation, the general extinction of the city (57 thousand out of the overall 116 thousand inhabitants of the city are pensioners), the relationship between people, and the emotional state of residents.
The London School of Economics researchers have concluded that human happiness depends more on social relationships and mental and physical health than on economic factors. And so as far as we cannot influence the economic situation of Lysychansk within Metacity: East project, we can at least try to demonstrate the potential for social and environmental changes in the city.
“Lysychansk is a sponge that absorbs what it has and changes accordingly”, - Anatolyi, lawyer and activist.
Even though many residents talk about the temporisation tendencies and depression, during our study, we also heard a lot of happy stories, met many people who had shown us another Lysychansk. We tried to focus on qualitative research from the very beginning and talk with people about the places they love in the city. Lysychansk residents shared their memories about what the place used to be before and the feeling of happiness it once gave them. We also tried to be as unbiased as possible by deliberately not studying the city before the trip. Due to this, we were guided only by what we learned from the townspeople, the physical study of the locations, and the results of the SWOT-analysis in our estimates. In the course of the five-day joint work with the residents, we managed to define ten locations, and, in the result of the SWOT analysis, selected four that were identified as the most valuable for the city and potentially suitable for transformation within the framework of the next phase of the Metacity: East project. We will describe each of these locations in detail, its significance for the townspeople and about the potential that we think this location has for the city.
1. Druzhba Cinema Although the cinema was loved by every second inhabitant of the city and called among their favourite places, we put it on our list for another reason. It’s not only because there was no cinema for a long time, (in a city with the population over 100 000 people), and not even because it should have been turned into a multifunctional center after the reconstruction to became self-reliant and use its full capacity. The main thing that attracted us was that the most informal public life of young people is closely located to the venue at the central square of the city.
Druzhba Cinema
Team of a project in a Druzhba Cinema
And the reason is simple:
in Lysychansk, one doesn’t have a lot of places with a coating suitable for BMX riding, skateboarding, or roller skating. The active informal youth who can’t find their place in Lysychansk made us believe that an indoor skate park (or rather, a center for informal athletic culture) will become a magnet for the city and will help to find the city’s uniqueness.
2. The Historic City Center “Lysychansk is the cradle of Donbas”.—was what we heard from every person in Lysychansk when we asked about what was unique about the city. The heart of Lysychansk has a whole complex of iconic objects that the townspeople are extremely proud of: – a unique Museum of mining fame (Museum of History of Coal Industry Development of the Lysychansk Coal District), located in the premises of the first mining educational institution, the Steingers’ school; – a memorial sign at the site of the foundation of the first shaft, which is the historical center that emerged in the first half of the 19th century; - Bazarna (Market) Square that started the first-ever street in Lysychansk and a park nearby. Lysychansk is one of the oldest cities in eastern Ukraine, with rich historical legacy—unlike its rather young neighbour, Sievierodonetsk. Therefore, it is very important to respect and develop its history while searching for the new senses, because nowadays the residents consider the newly built shopping and entertainment centers to be the center of the city.
The Historic City Center
3. Volodymyr Sosyura House of Culture Volodymyr Sosyura House of Culture is located in the center of Stiekolnyi (Glass) district, which was named after the enterprise that was built in the neighborhood. The fact that Volodymyr Sosyura lived in Lysychansk and later described his memories in his poem “Tretia Rota” (“The Third Company”) is, perhaps, the greatest pride of the city, after the notion of being the “cradle of Donbas”. We were told about this place by a local official, who spoke to us about this premises with such love and tenderness that we decided to take a look at it. Our tour guide through Stiekolka (the way locals call the neighbourhood), Albert, a hydraulic engineer and part-time taxi driver, by coincidence, grew up here.
“If in the first year of school you do not jump from the tower with your head down, everyone knows you’re not local from Stie-
The Verhnye (Upper) lake
БК “Сосюри”
kolka”. - Albert, a local resident. The largest house of culture in the city, besides its direct cultural function, also works as a sports and recreation center, for it is surrounded by two lakes, Nyzhnye (Lower) and Verhnye (Upper)—the only lakes in the city where swimming is allowed. For some reason, when you listen to the memories of the locals, it is easy to imagine kids skating here in winter and diving from the tower in summer. Another pleasant surprise awaited us by the House of Culture: the water tower that has been built but never launched. It seemed to speak to us with the language of Edward Munch as if ready for cultural interventions.
The water tower
4. Belgian Heritage The construction of the second-in-Europe and the first-in-tsarist-Russia soda factory of big capacity is just one of the achievements that glorified the Belgian entrepreneurs, who lived and worked in the Donbas and considered it to be their province. We wanted to pay additional attention not just to the economic benefits of their actions, but also to the social and urban changes it provoked. First of all, we mean the architecture that is unique to the region, nowhere else to be seen in the city but in this neighborhood. Even in an abandoned state, it could be a hallmark of Lysychansk and enthral people. Secondly, these are the standards of life, health, and work that the Belgians introduced. The Belgian construction was self-sufficient because all of the necessary infrastructures were built together with the plant. We all know that the working conditions at that time were extremely difficult. People often lived in dugouts, and died not because of the hard work but from illnesses that spread in the unsanitary environment. When the Belgians came, they built barracks with a central heating system, dormitories, schools, and hospitals. A paradigm of treating the workers has changed: the worker treated as a slave turned into an employee who’s a member
Belgian Heritage
of society. We planned to choose one of the locations using the so-called “weather map� that defines where the transformation will have a greater effect. As we can see from the diagram below, the greatest transformation effect would be at locations 2 and 4. However, Metacity: East team has decided to choose the first location, Druzhba cinema, due to its location and the active community that was a key criterion for the choice of territory.
C A C C
A
A
C A
C
C
A
“Weather map” *”Weather map” is a map that shows what amplifies (A) and what complicates (C) the potential transformations in the given moment. A (amplifiers): the presence of abandoned areas, good transportation (mainly public transport), high density of young people (educational institutions, places of gatherings of young people), favorite places of the locals. C (complicators): private sector, planned areas.
City events Under the conditions of military actions nearby, with the local budget barely covering the salaries and pensions, it is possible to launch sustainable development in the city only with changes that do not require significant investment.
“Imagine that a friend from another city came to see you. What would you recommend him to visit? Where to go?” “To the rooftop of one of the buildings, you can see the whole city from there”, was student Vladyslav’s advice. But the access to the rooves in the city is temporarily closed. Why not use the slag heaps for that? A city that understands its own weak points and its limited resources needs to be creative. The slag heaps nowadays are among the most harmful coal mining side effects for the environment. Every year about 400 tons of rock dust is being blown from the slag heap surface, containing large amounts of toxic compounds, and more than eight tons of salts are being washed out. The heaps have direct and significant damage on the population’s health, since many of those are located within the settlements, in particular in Lysychansk. Therefore, the greening of extinct heaps will im-
prove the environmental situation, cleansing the air and restoring the fertile soil layer, which will contribute to changing the industrial landscape of the city to be more tourist-friendly. Lysychansk is an industrial city surrounded by a unique heterogeneous anthropogenic (heaps) and natural (dune) landscape. This natural feature gives Lysychansk an advantage even compared with Sievierodonetsk, which now has the role of a “city for entertainment”. The locals are already using the slope near Olen’ (“The Deer”) for skiing and skateboarding, they rest on the shores of the Siversky Donets River even without the well equipped beaches, and they organize bicycling rallies and promote green tourism. “Soft” measures like that do not require large financial investments but allow taking another angle at the city by outlining its sports and recreational potential. Lysychansk is a beautiful city: historical, picturesque, and unusual. And today the city is at the crossroad as if in a fairy tale. After all the experience it had, the city is about to choose its own unique path. And it might be frightening and disturbing to go where you’ve never been before—yet very exciting! One thing is clear: this path must lead to the happiness of people who live, work, and create here, people who live with Lysychansk. Iryna Yakovchuk, urban curators
Reference: 1. Талеб, Н. (2017). Чорний лебідь. Про (не) ймовірне у реальному житті. Київ: Наш Формат. 2. World Happiness Report 2017. Отримано з https://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17_320-17.pdf 3. Справжня ціна вугілля в умовах війни на Донбасі: погляд крізь призму прав людини. Отримано з https://ua.boell.org/sites/default/ files/real_price_of_coal_in_war_time_donbas.pdf 4. Oswald, P., Overmeyer, K., Misselwitz, P. (2012). Urban Catalyst. The Power of temporary use.
Title collage: Anastasiya Ponomaryova Photo: Svitlana Kolodiy, Іryna Yakovchuk, Anastasiya Ponomaryova digital version is available on a web-site: www.urbancurators.com.ua