NLP candidate Lilia Ranogaeţ says Chisinau needs ‘paradigm shift’
Lilia Ranogaeţ, National Liberal Party’s mayoral candidate, says things in Chisinau would improve only through a paradigm shift. She offers to be that “different kind of mayor” that delivers “a different kind of management.”
According to the NLP candidate, Chisinau needs a new urban planning policy. She says she can bring to completion the project of building a beltway around the city in order to relieve it of traffic jams; and make suburbs more attractive by creating more jobs and infrastructure as a solution for overpopulation.
Other plans proposed by Ranogaeţ include renovating old buildings, constructing social housing and underground car parks, offering more places in kindergartens, repairing streets, and investing in social projects.
Lilia Ranogaeţ, a businesswoman, is number 13 on the ballot.
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PCRM presents candidates for Chisinau Council
The Communist Party has presented its candidates for the Chisinau Municipal Council. The list consists of 35 candidates. Valerii Pavlov, candidate and former municipal councillor on the PCRM list, has called on people to vote for the Communist team, saying it is the only team able to solve the problems that have accumulated so far in the city.
Gheorghii Mocan, candidate for the position of councillor, has said that the problems are related to the chaotic constructions, the damaged roads, the lack of green spaces. According to him, the city, which was once beautiful and clean, became uncomfortable for most inhabitants. Gheorghii Mocan believes that people have the right to a decent living that PCRM can provide.
Another candidate for councillor position, Tatiana Gogu, argues that many parties promise to solve the problems of pupils and students, but they do not deliver on their promises whereas PCRM is able to solve them.
The Communist Party has no candidate for the capital’s mayoralty.
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Ion Ceban promises to refurbish five underground crossings each year
The candidate of the Socialist Party for the capital mayoralty, Ion Ceban, argues that most of the 20 underground crossings in the capital are in a state of dilapidation. The candidate to the mayor's seat promises that five underground crossings will be rehabilitated annually and 25 million lei will be allocated to this end, IPN reports.
"It happens very often that pedestrians cross the road on the highway, precisely due to run-down underground crossings. Therefore, people are forced to risk their lives because of the dilapidated underground crossings. We all know the state of the underground crossings: the stairs are damaged, the plaster falls off the walls, the smell is unbearable. In many of them there is no lighting. Underground crossings directly indicate the lack of proper management in the municipality in the recent years”, noted Ion Ceban.
The candidate argues that, given the fact that each year five underground crossings are supposed to be rehabilitated, by the end of his term, all of them would be refurbished. "We will identify financial resources both from the budget and from outside. These crossings must be convenient for everyone, starting with people with disabilities and ending with parents taking their children about in strollers, the elderly and all residents and guests of the capital,” said the candidate.
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Former mayor Chirtoacă promises to restore rule of law in Chisinau
Victor Chironda, the New Force Party’s candidate for Chisinau mayor, says public parking should be a priority for the municipality, but not at the cost of “transforming the city into a giant parking lot, as is the current tendency.”
His solution includes building multi-storied lots for all-day parking on the outskirts as well as intermodal mobility hubs to keep traffic congestion in the city at bay. Additionally, each apartment block would be required to assign sufficient parking spots for the residents.
Victor Chironda admits that while the notion of metered parking is a sensitive issue for the Moldovans, establishing a policy to implement such a system is necessary in Chisinau. It’s not normal for the number of cars to rise to such an extent in the city that vehicular and pedestrian traffic become an ordeal, says Chironda. He suggests that the revenue generated by the metered parking could be funneled to modernize the public transit system, build pedestrian infrastructure and bike lanes.
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Valeriu Munteanu blames Chisinau filth on Soviet waste management system
Valeriu Munteanu, Save Bessarabia Union’s mayoral candidate, says Chisinau is a dirty city and blames the Soviet-style waste management system for that.
During a press conference, Munteanu noted that there were as many as five different municipal subdivisions involved in municipal waste management. “There is this absurd separation of tasks. These agencies are engaged in a never-ending fight with one another and there are areas which no one wants to take responsibility for and which are always left uncleaned.”
Munteanu’s plan is to act in five directions to address the waste management problem. First, he intends to reorganize the system by assigning a single agency to be in charge. Other actions include the full mechanization of the municipal cleanup effort; shifting to liquid agents for de-icing and snow removal; buying equipment for shredding and compacting yard waste and foliage; and implementing a waste sorting and recycling system. “These five actions are not very expensive to implement, but they are very important”, says Munteanu, a former ecology minister, “they will make our city clean in four years, tops.”