Almaty residents took to the social network Threads to complain about the condition of benches in a park near the city administration building. Photos posted online show wooden seat slats torn off, leaving only one edge of the bench usable, according to infohub.kz.
The images were shared by user zhamillina, who wrote: "I took a walk through our beautiful autumn city today. I saw several broken benches on Republic Square. It's only been a few months since they were installed! I was upset. And I thought that some of our people don't deserve beauty. How can we keep them away from beautiful places?! A rhetorical question, of course."
In the comments, users said they had also seen "destroyed" benches more than once, and not only on Republic Square. Some blamed the city administration for installing flimsy structures, while others blamed residents themselves for disrespecting public amenities.
The press service of Almaty's Department for the Development of Public Spaces also responded to the woman on Threads. "Having reviewed your post, we inform you that the contractor is documenting the identified acts of vandalism and drawing up the relevant defect reports for the damaged landscaping elements. Restoration of the damaged elements will be carried out under the contractor's warranty obligations," the department said.
Earlier, reconstruction was carried out on Satpayev Street and in the park near the city administration building. The public spaces on both sides of Satpayev Street were fully upgraded by August of this year. Kursiv captured the new look of Republic Square in its photo report.