Making the quality of life for this family measurably better today may seem of less geopolitical importance than a lasting peace deal and an assured path to a European future, but having struggled now for a year to do just that, I am now more sure than ever that seemingly simple improvements will in fact make all the difference to our country’s ability to stand on its own two feet.
Prices for basic goods like utilities, food and medicine have soared, but wages and pensions have not. Kyivan families are making sacrifices in their daily budget, but they don’t see their country’s government – which shares the city with us – doing the same. While they tell families to tighten their belts, they themselves are letting tariffs rise higher than pensions and asking people to make changes while they play the same politics as always.
Kyivans are tired of politicians and tired of talk. So am I. That is why it is time turn off the talk and turn on the action.
When Kyivans elected me as mayor one year ago, this city was in shambles. This was in part due to the revolution, but to a greater degree because of the broken system that preceded it. Saddled with debt, the city was unable to meet its obligation to its citizens, workers were unpaid and basic services were essentially at a standstill.
My first task was to assemble a team that could help me restore order. For this I brought together not bureaucrats, but men and women with practical experience in solving problems. For the last year we have been working around the clock to meet the high expectations of Kyivans. As we look forward, now is an appropriate moment to pause and consider what has been accomplished.
First, we took aim at corruption and inefficiency in all city departments. My team found over a half-billion hryvnia in violations. We fired over three hundred city administration officials, many managers, and we sent a third of these cases to the prosecutor’s office.
How does fighting corruption make a real difference in the lives of that Kyiv family?
Let’s take the case of KyivPasTrans, which is responsible for public transport. Like all Kyivans, I wasted many frustrating hours sitting in traffic trying to cross the South Bridge. Over 50 percent of working mothers and fathers are forced to make this commute across the river each day – only to return in time to pick up their kids after school.
We decided it was high time to fix public transportation in Kyiv. We discovered that managers at KyivPasTrans were stealing from the payroll. And we exposed their theft to the prosecutor and the public. Then we found the funds to pay back wages owed to bus drivers and technicians. This helped us to get trains and buses running on time once more, with greater safety and efficiency than at any time in recent memory.
The results speak for themselves. Since we started this reform, approximately 200,000 more passengers ride Kyiv’s public transportation system each day. We reached record profits – and reinvested this money back into the system. In the past six months, we already repaired over a hundred buses, trams and rail cars – and we’re adding 70 more units to the system. We also added 52 kilometers of traffic roads dedicated to public transportation. It’s just the start, but for once Kyiv’s traffic problems are moving in the right direction.
Given the economic hardships today, the need for social assistance has grown exponentially, and now we are providing direct support through various instruments to twelve times the number of recipients who were receiving one form of aid or another at this time last year. We have no wish for a welfare state by any means, but stemming the immediate suffering of the most vulnerable is our moral obligation at the moment. This is a time to help families survive and restore hope. By negotiating an agreement with Kyiv’s largest bread factory, we have managed to hold down the price on this basic staple to less than five hryvnia a loaf.
Our grandmothers should not have to decide whether to spend their meager pensions on food or medicine. That is why we have expanded the number of prescription drugs available at city pharmacies at reduced prices. Critically, we have restored supplies of insulin and radically stepped up the city’s capacity to treat tuberculosis. We have also stepped up the response time of city ambulances so that nearly 90 percent are now reaching those who call within ten minutes.
The quality of kindergarten lunches had long concerned parents who shouldn’t have to bear the thought of their children returning home with empty stomachs, or eating stale biscuits. By direct sourcing food for kindergartens, we’ve made qualitative improvements to what student are fed. A new challenge for our schools and communities came with new neighbors – fellow Ukrainians forced to flee their homes in the east. This strained the resources of our school system, and thousands of children were without spots in preschools and daycares. In response, we opened up nearly 80 day-care groups for working parents.
Now we’re remodeling kindergartens, building two new ones, and have set up nearly 80 day-care groups for working parents. Resources are tight all around, but we are now allocating funds to provide bonuses to underpaid teachers next year.
While tariffs for gas, electricity and other utilities controlled by the central government shoot through the roof, we have held the line on residential tariffs.
We installed European equipment in the City’s waterworks. Now 60,000 Kyivans have drinking-quality water flowing freely from their taps, without use of chlorine. By the end of the year, three stations will be completed and 120 thousand will have clean water. No Kyivan should have to pay extra for something as basic as drinking water.
Once dubbed the greenest city in Europe, Kyiv’s parks have fallen into disrepair. Especially at a time of hardship and stress, citizens should have places to relax with their families that are safe and clean. We’ve cleaned existing parks and built bicycle path – 22 kilometers from Troyeshyna to European Square – to encourage healthy lifestyles as well as environmentally sensible transport. Illegal kiosks litter the parks and streets with sub-standard products and pay no taxes. We have removed 4,000 of these in an ongoing campaign that benefits consumers and honest small businesses alike.
Order is also coming to our police force through a new pilot project of professionally trained officers launched in Kyiv earlier this month. I have high hopes for this project, and we are working hand-in-hand with the new police to ensure they succeed in their mission to better protect our citizens from crime and corruption.
In all of these areas, change is just beginning. Now is not a moment for triumphalism, rather an opportunity to build a new model of effective city governance that serves the citizens as opposed to robbing them. The reform our country desperately needs can begin in its capital. We will not cease our efforts to realize this until Ukraine’s largest city offers all others a path forward both to hope, and something of which to be proud. Once a boxer, I know personally the importance of driving beyond one’s breaking point. So, too, do Kyivans.
Vitaly Klischko is the mayor of Kyiv, Chicago’s sister city in Ukraine.
