A makeover for Moscows sidewalks

Dust bowls in the heat and muddy morasses after rain,sidewalks where asphalt is being replaced by brick tile have had one interesting side-effect: forcing the famously decked-out women of Moscow to rethink a cornerstone of their fashion canon: ultra-high heels.

The saddest thing of all is that spike heels,which Moscow women wore in any weather,will most likely disappear into history, wrote Nikolai Uskov,the editor of the Russian GQ magazine.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin,a Siberian-born former Kremlin chief of staff,was appointed by President Dmitri A. Medvedev last October. He came into an office with a legacy of accusations of spousal cronyismthe wife of his predecessor,Yuri M. Luzhkov,is Yelena Baturina,Russias only female billionaire; she was widely criticised for construction projects by her conglomerate.

So it seemed only natural that when construction workers hit the sidewalks,bloggers and many Muscovites seized on the idea that Sobyanins wife,Irina,was in the sidewalk tile business. At any rate,Sobyanin insisted to the business newspaper Vedomosti that his wife was a kindergarten teacher and dismissed the accusations as hysteria about nothing.

Another whispering campaign concerned the workers engaged to replace the sidewalks. Some ethnic Russians,who have become more critical about the influx of Central Asian and other ethnic minorities,suspected a plot to bring in even more strangers. The Federal Migration Service last week said the citys subcontractors had not committed any mass violation of rules on illegal migrant labour.

Unfounded accusations aside,one company did say it would fire several workers for another violation: pouring concrete into part of a centrally located sidewalk and drawing outlines of bricks rather than putting down the real thing.

Other issues around the sidewalk operation concern the disabled. Tatiana Melyakova,who uses a wheelchair and runs an advocacy organisation for the disabled,said that while she does not oppose the idea of tile sidewalks,the project was frivolous when so many other ways to aid mobility are lacking.

The tiling of Moscow has also thrown a spotlight on roller-skaters,who often roam in large groups on evenings or weekends,as sort of an under-the-radar political force.

I think every tenth person in Moscow has roller skates, said Vladimir Tkachev,president of the Roller Sport Federation of Russia. Seams in the tile sidewalks have made some routes impassable,forcing roller-skaters onto roadways,he said.

As for women in 12-centimetre,or five-inch,heels,an unscientific survey of central Moscow suggested this week they were scarcer than usual.

While the wearers of Manolos and Louboutins were likely to be vacationing in St. Tropez or Sardinia,young women left to swelter in sticky Moscow had suddenly taken to flats or wedges.

Heels fall between the seams, said Nadezhda Kodol,25,sporting a maxi dress and wedges. Thank God they havent put down tile in all of Moscow yet.

But,Kodol conceded,The tile looks more attractive than asphalt though.