After restoration of independence in 1991, a new image of a welfare state was born, which led to rapid urban sprawl of the metropolitan of Riga. Disappearing restrictive rules that were defined by totalitarian rule, people now apprise the freedom of defining their own space, a new ideal of 'perfect' life is born. This new ideal is mainly associated with the ownership of a private house with a garden. As seen in recent growth of the suburbs in the Riga peri urban territory, people with financial opportunity are searching for a private dwelling with a garden.
Collectivity is connected to unwanted political authorities and benefits of collectivity are non-existent according to them. During the Soviet era, collectivity was imposed by the regime which has led to a condition where nowadays people are looking to it suspiciously. In the peri urban dwelling area every owner defines his degree of collectif satisfaction. In the city of Riga, inhabitants of large collective housing estates have to live collectively and take care of collective infrastructure. Since the entry of the capitalistic system, the collective is no longer free of expenses. Common space is no longer a good of the state, somebody has to take care of it and not all the inhabitants living in such condition are ready to pay and take care for it.
Urban planning and real estate market of Soviet era is still evident in Riga and other regions of Latvia. Planning that dealt with a new plan every 5 years, trying to build a more efficient new housing estate and a workplace according to a prognosis of the state's structure. This has led to housing estates that are scattered all over place. The State also determined that the workplace was closely related to living space, or in other words, people had to live close by the place they worked. As private ownership and free will was not evident during that time, people had no freedom of choice when it came to their working or living space. Living area was determined by family constellations. Owners of existing estate could only exchange it if they wanted to optimise the usage of space. During this period people went so far as even getting divorced to get extra living units for family expansion.
Once the system collapsed a total disorientation happened on the housing market. People suddenly had the freedom to choose where they live or work. The 30m2 apartment no longer met the wishes of contemporary citizens and a new ideal of living on a 1200m2 plot with a house was born. The new trend goes hand in hand with the policy of the surrounding municipalities that attract developers with cheap plots and provide them the opportunity to parcel out agrarian land without becoming thoughtful of the collective utilities. Although the land that historically was agricultural has a great potential to benefit both from the city and its peri urban territory, this opportunity could not work as a whole due to the disputes between the city Riga and its surrounding municipalities. The peri urban area gets slowly cuts into pieces without a greater strategic planning by the different authorities. The income tax for the surrounding municipalities together with the new investments that are coming with the sprawl were way too attractive for them.
The migration from the city to the peri urban area is aggravated by the migration of the inhabitants from the countryside. The amount of inhabitants in the periphery of Riga increased in 2018 with 0,9% or 3,3 thousand. The biggest decrease of the population was in the Latgale region in the countryside of Latvia with 1,7% or 4,6 thousand inhabitants.[…]This intensive migration is due to economic reasons. As the Soviet system intensified the countryside, the fall of the Soviet system and its sales market made the countryside unnecessary. The large estates were no longer production centres and the new workplaces were mostly situated in the capital and the bigger cities of Latvia. As well the cultural centres that were build along with the large estates closed their doors and young people were forced to move towards the cities, with higher living standard. The urban centres in the countryside providing work are falling apart as there is no market any more. The new capitalistic system doesn't allow such concentrations in the countryside. More and more people are forced to move to the city.[…] The Latvian government lacks ideas to find a role for these concentrations in the countryside and this has resulted with small farmers moving to the city, while searching for a brighter future. People are moving to the city while staying in the peri urban territory of it because it is cheaper to live there.
A big opportunity is hidden in this migration. People with agricultural know-how settle in the city. Most of them are looking for some kind of garden, allotment or private, where to grow food. We should use their knowledge to set up larger forms of common gardening or agriculture or we will lose it within one generation as it happened in the rest of Europe.
Recently the city of Riga signed a memorandum with the greater Riga municipalities to finally work together. This could be a new trend for planning of the open space and the old common infrastructure that can still be renewed in the Riga Metropolitan area.
Large hidden societal costs are connected to this way of living but also large disadvantages for the dwellers of those territories. Nowadays the first discussions on traffic congestion and high costs for utilities are popping up in the urban discussions.