On February 21, the Rīga City Council decided to change the names of Maskavas, Lomonosova, Puškina, Gogoļa, Ļermontova, Turgeņeva and Tipogrāfijas Streets.
Latvian Radio observed that on Vilhelma Purvīša Street, next to the Academy of Sciences, an old wooden residential building still has the old street name - Turgeņeva Street. Many other buildings on this street have not had their addresses changed. The situation is similar in neighboring streets, whose names the City Council decided to change three months ago.
A dental clinic on the ground floor of a multi-storey building on Vilhelma Purvīša Street at the intersection with Timoteja Street still had the old street name. The clinic's employee gave Latvian Radio the phone number of the building's manager.
Māris Mellēns, the head of the house manager organization "Timotejs Owners' Association", said that the change had been delayed because the building manager was confused about the neighboring house, which is owned by the municipality.
The building was previously a police station but is now empty. It is understood that both parties have now reached an agreement.
"The signs have been made. They are ready for installation. The operator will put them in place in the next few days as they should be according to the new rules," said Mellen. "There are many merchants in our building, around ten. None of them has approached me with a question, confusion or otherwise, but Russian speakers are still writing to me in the home WhatsApp group that something is not right in Gogoļa Street. I write that Gogoļa Street has long since moved elsewhere. So that they write Benjamiņas Street."
In February, the Riga City Council decided that address plates should be changed within three months, i.e. by May 21. The City Council said that the production of the plates for the longest one – former Maskavas, now Latgales Street has been delayed, while at the same time indicating that the residents of the street will be able to start receiving them from June onwards.
However, in the other streets whose names have been changed, 73% of addresses have been issued the new address plates.
The municipality will start checking whether the building owners have installed them in the second half of the summer, said Inese Andersone (New Unity), head of the Riga City Council's Urban Development Committee:
"At the beginning, of course, we are inviting everyone through communication and direct invitations through building managers, owners. We go to the addresses to invite people and owners to take out the new signs. We are talking more about calls to post and warnings, but we are not talking about penalties at the moment."
