ИСТИНА

Physical effects of shrinkage, e.g. abandonment, vacancies, infrastructural degradation, are the most evident manifestations of the phenomenon. They downgrade the quality of life in the city due to the increase in prices for housing and communal services contributing to the overall unappealing image of the city both for the living and for business activity. Therefore, no wonder that these negative effects trigger the adoption of new policy and planning approaches accompanied by tactical urbanism initiatives aimed at providing a high quality of life for the remaining residents. In the last quarter-century, Russia has become a country of shrinking cities, a significant number of which are located in northern and Arctic regions. Recently much attention on the national level has been paid to cityscapes with the adoption of the national program “The formation of a comfortable urban environment”. Since Russian state, de jure, has been promoting the idea of self-governance, urban municipalities become responsible for creating this “comfortable” and “contemporary” urban environment in the form in which the local stakeholders understand these notions. Drawing on empirical evidence from Apatity (Murmansk region), we aim at analyzing official discourses of “comfortable” and “contemporary” urban environment and whether proposed solutions are able to mitigate the effects of urban shrinkage and microclimate change, which are an objective reality of this city’s long-term development. The key points of the research include the evaluation of local planning and policy documents and the coherence of these documents, as well as interviews with the local stakeholders.