Neighbourhood (dis)satisfaction in a former closed Soviet city: the case of Dnipro(petrovsk), Ukraine

Abstract

This paper describes and analyses the geography and factors of the neighbourhood satisfaction of the residents of a former post-WWII Soviet closed city in Ukraine – the post-Soviet city of Dnipro (population ca. one million). It is based on a questionnaire survey (n=1248) among adult (18+) inhabitants in Dnipro conducted in early 2018. The results show that the current inner-urban pattern is characterised by semi-peripheralised neighbourhood satisfaction, which is a consequence of the significant influence of (among other factors): infrastructure availability in the neighbourhood, the social and natural environmental in the neighbourhood, and the set of Soviet-legacy factors (the “Soviet” factor). Surprisingly, the highest level of neighbourhood satisfaction in the city of Dnipro is observed in one of the peripheral neighbourhoods (with predominant detached housing), in which the residents’ evaluation of their residential neighbourhood follows the proximity effect.