The Attractiveness of City as Place to Live: The Case of Yekaterinburg

Within increasing competition between cities for human resources a problem to enhance attractiveness of urban life is coming to the fore. While planning and designing urban environment major focus is given to the needs and interests of different population groups. Hence, a city should become a place of attracting creative people, individuals and groups which possess special knowledge and skills necessary for promoting, developing and improving an area that could become appealing to business, investors, tourists, etc.. With this purpose much attention should be paid to student-age youth as a potential driver of the area development by transforming a place of residence into an attractive urban environment. The purpose of this study is to analyze how student-age young people of Yekaterinburg perceive and assess attractiveness of the city as a place to live. Yekaterinburg is the biggest Russian industrial city that claims to be the "third" capital (after Moscow and Saint Petersburg). In 2017 we worked out an author's questionnaire containing 10 questions and conducted a standardized sociological poll of students of Yekaterinburg. 71 men and 129 women aged 18-25 of different academic fields participated in the survey. 42% of poll participants are local residents of Yekaterinburg (they were born in it and live here on a permanent basis), 58% came here from other places (80% of respondents moved to Yekaterinburg to study in higher educational establishments). Research findings showed that Yekaterinburg as a place to live is attractive for students due to a wide range of malls and shops, extended cultural and leisure facilities, opportunities for higher education and self-actualization. Meanwhile, the students pointed out some problem zones of the city like ecological situation, pavement condition, pollution, corruption and impossibility to take part in solving city problems. The young people consider park areas, transport accessibility (subway availability), extended network of cultural and recreational centers to be major attractive factors of urban life. General results of the poll and students' assessments indicate that a city as a place to live has two facets: a "comfortable" city with parks and gardens, cultural and leisure facilities, conditions for creative self-fulfillment and innovation and an "instrumental" city as a place for career development and material welfare.