European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 17, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                              R i s i continued from Page 13 Cathedral Are in relatively Good shape. The City was simply transported in its entirety into our Era albeit worse for the Wear said Alexander Kobak Deputy director of the St. Petersburg cultural fund a private group. It was left alone hot because of its Beauty but because there was t enough Money to tear it  political change began in the soviet Union. People Here most prominently the City s mayor and most indefatigable Salesman Anatoly a. Sobchak had Hopes that the Romance of the City and its prime location on the Gulf of Finland would turn it into a showcase not Only of architectural splendor but also of economic Renaissance. Soon after his election in 199q, Sobchak spoke of making the City a free economic zone where foreign investors would be lured with tax Breaks and Liberal land use policies. But the idea of St. Petersburg As a unique free Market Island in a socialist sea has died a quiet death killed by political changes in Moscow where a failed coup and the collapse of the soviet Union led to the creation of a new government determined to bring economic Reform to All of Russia. Since then St. Petersburg s fortunes have tended to lag behind Moscow s. While the number of foreign companies investing Here is growing their number is smaller and the Impact of new businesses is not so keenly Felt As. In the capital. For All its attractions and its potential St. Petersburg is a poor City of 5 million people with the bad Luck to be a major Center of the old soviet defense Industry now faltering after deep cuts in government orders. According to Western analysts though privatization of Small and medium sized enterprises has moved faster Here than in other parts of Russia and foreign investors speak highly of the educated work Force and the cooperation received from the mayor s office. An elderly woman rests on a Park Bench. At left a statue of Peter the great on horseback stands in a City Park. Big projects Are on the drawing boards including a new seaport at ust Luga about 70 Miles West of the City to be financed with private capital in the Hope that it will be the largest port on the Baltic sea by the end of the Century. But continuing squabbles Between Sobchak and the City Council Over control of the City s properties from Industrial Sites to pre revolutionary mansions have slowed Many other projects including a proposal for several Small free economic zones i  Holland one of the City s Many Small islands is one example of a grand idea that went sour. A joint russian French project called for the restoration of the Island used for centuries As a storage site for the City and its conversion to commercial use. But the project ran into heavy political opposition from among others nationalists and historic preservationists who objected to the Sale of the City s treasures to foreigners. Since then another plan for the restoration of new Holland has been drawn up but Poz Dukhov of the preservation department says its financing and its completion Date Are Uncertain. Similar disputes have held up other restoration projects with the result that after All the talk and All the Hopes much of the old City looks As shabby and neglected As it did in the soviet Era. There was a myth that St. Petersburg would turn around quickly that so Many tourists would come and bring so much Money that the City would recover said Kobak the Deputy director of the cultural fund. Now three years later it is Clear that that was a Complete  to restore St. Petersburg to its full glory would take a huge investment which neither the City nor the russian government can afford Kobak said. It would not be within the Means of any country let alone a poor one he said noting the similarities with Venice Italy another City built on canals which even with the help of International organizations is losing its Battle to save its heritage. Like the people at the preservation department Kobak is ambivalent about the role played by private capital in historic preservation. He noted cases where entrepreneurs had moved into old buildings and ripped out and sold priceless fireplaces murals and Woodwork that had miraculously survived the soviet Era. As in Moscow the privatization of Public property Here has been Rife with corruption As City officials take advantage of their positions to distribute state owned real estate. The cultural fund itself had to fight attempts to sell its own premises on Nevsky Prospect in the building of the old City Duma right out from under it. When i got the notice that the building was to be sold on a commercial basis Kobak said my first thought was who gave what to whom " members of St. Petersburg s arts world tend to Point to the City s distaste for commercialization As something that distinguishes it from Moscow where As they see it everything except perhaps the Kremlin has its Price. At the Tam Tam club a raucous gathering place for St. Petersburg s Post Punk generation the manager Points proudly to the fact that the admission Price now 200 rubles or roughly 20 cents costs less than a ticket to the movies. Moscow does to have any such places he said or if they do they charge More and if possible in  in Moscow it is All pop As in All that is popular said Leonid Tikhomirov a musician who organized a world jeans festival outside St. Petersburg last summer. There they Are closer to Power and however much they May try to fight against it they Are still court  the jeans festival is an example of St. Petersburg s Zany counterculture scene organized around Tikhomirov s premise that anyone who wears jeans can take part in it. But cely Sysoyev a St. Petersburg actor who recently starred in an american play about Anastasia the. Daughter of the last Czar staged in what had once been the Royal family s private theater in the Winter Palace worries that this kind of High mindedness could prove fatal. Right now Petersburg theater is at a dead end he said mournfully. Moscow is Way ahead of us. They Are More Brazen and they understand commercialism. It is not just a question of Money but of  6f. Petersburg built on the Black sea coast was once the elegant capital of a powerful Empire but is now Russia s second largest City top photo youngster displays her pet a Ampster while playing in the Sand along the Blacksea. 14 stripes Magazine february 17, 1994 february 17, 1994 stripes Magazine 15