Mayor without money: how Lviv lost 2 billion from the budget and what Sadovyi will do

Lviv is turning into a collapsing city, and the mayor shrugs his shoulders

Andriy Sadovyi, who has been in charge of Lviv for 18 years, seems to be at a dead end. The city’s development budget is at zero, the number of residents has reached one million, and the infrastructure is bursting at the seams.

“We were robbed of 2 billion in real money,” the mayor laments, but why did the city become so dependent on the central budget? Over the years, Sadovyi has not created a sufficient safety cushion and stable sources of revenue for the city treasury.

The city is suffocating from a transportation collapse. New residential complexes are growing like mushrooms after the rain, but their residents park their cars right on the sidewalks and lawns. “People don’t want to buy parking spaces for 20-40 thousand dollars,” explains Sadovyi. But why did the city authorities turn a blind eye for years to the fact that developers did not create sufficient infrastructure?

The situation with the waste processing plant is illustrative. The project, which was supposed to solve the city’s garbage problem, has not yet been completed. Only 45% of the equipment has been installed, and the contractor is working sluggishly. “We had a difficult period of discussion with them,” the mayor comments. However, why did the city fail to ensure strict control over the implementation of such an important project?

Sadovyi boasts of attracting hundreds of millions of euros in international aid. But where does this money go if the city continues to suffer from basic infrastructure problems? It is telling that most attention is paid to the Unbroken project, which has become a kind of “business card” of the mayor in the international arena.

The issue of construction is particularly acute. “There are quite a few developers in each deputy faction,” Sadovyi frankly admits. But why did the mayor, who has the right to veto decisions of the city council, not oppose the transformation of the city into a “concrete jungle” for years?

A new problem has also emerged – in Sadovyi’s own words, “old oligarchs are leaving, but new ones are emerging” in Ukraine. The question arises: has the city become a hostage to new corruption schemes and interests?

Even the ambitious announcement that airports will open this year is met with skepticism. Sadovyi compares the situation to Israel, but is the city’s infrastructure ready for such a step?

It seems that the “eternal mayor” of Lviv has finally lost control of the situation in the city. We can only hope that the international partners on whom Sadovyi is counting will help pull the city out of the infrastructure crisis.