DONETSK – As the youngest of four host cities in Ukraine, Donetsk is set out in easy-to-navigate Soviet grid style. This has allowed organizers to utilize the city center’s vast pedestrian-only green space to their advantage. Five leisurely kilometers separate the fan zone in rose bush and lush green Sherbakov Park to the south and the Lenin Komsomol Park by Donbass Arena to the north.
Both parks offer plenty of shade from the
sweltering heat. Sherbakov Park has a beach for swimmers, offers paddle and row
boats for rent in the area’s interconnecting ponds, and plenty of tent-covered
cafes.
Although, the fan zone only has capacity
for 35,000 fans (55,000 fewer than Kyiv), the surrounding 60 hectares of parkland has plenty of
area to soak in additional visitors. A huge disappontment was that seating in the fan zone was only provided in
the paid admission VIP zone. So the Kyiv Post didn’t stay long because the lack
of shade and seating, combined with loud music, was too much to bear.
A wander along Pushkinska Street, the main thoroughfare
that leads to Donbass Arena via Artema Street and the pedestrian bridge that
leads to the fan zone, is lined with fast food joints like Celentano Pizzeria
to high-end restaurants like Pushkin. Mostly a car-free zone, Pushkinska has modern
sculptures with symbols of the city’s main attributes, gardens filled with
different rose varieties in bloom, fountains, and plenty of benches on which to
rest.
Komsomol Park adjacent to Donbass Arena has
more lawn area so there was plenty of Frisbee disc throwers and football
players taking in the sun.
Kyiv should have taken cue from Donetsk.
Given how Donetsk’s fan zone is further from the center and the match venue,
one would have thought organizers in Kyiv would’ve set up a fan zone in Podil
near Kontraktova Square along Saihadachnoho Street, for example. This would have
unclogged Khreshchatyk for businesses and people working in the area, and left
the Maidan Nezalezhnosti metro station in use.
But back in 2002 when the “Ukraine without
Kuchma” movement was in full swing, authorities decided to renovate Maidan
Nezalezhnosti. Today it’s difficult to stage large public events like protests
without closing Khreshchatyk Street to vehicles. The underground Globus and
Metrograd shopping malls are situated where architects say cars should be
driving leaving the ground above for pedestrians, trees and other urban
amenities.
And despite the area’s steel plants and
coal mines, UNESCO has recognized Donetsk as the world’s cleanest industrial
city, thanks to the strategic planting of green zones and parks that suck in a
lot of pollutant carbon dioxide.
