A prerequisite to this is the completion of several infrastructure projects big and small, she added.

Appearing on Wednesday's "Otse uudistemajast" webcast, Lippus, whose main area of responsibility is transport, said: "For decades, Tallinn has faced the issue of dispersion, where the city center seems to empty out."

Lippus, whose party entered a coalition with Center after the October 2021 local elections, said the city government's current focus lies on facilitating access to the city center, including the area around Liivalaia tänav, a major Northeast-Southwest thoroughfare and which skirts the city center.

One of the major problems in Tallinn, according to Lippus, is the shortage of kindergartens. "For a long time now this issue has failed to be addressed, while kindergarten places have not been deliberately increased in areas where more residential buildings have been erected. For instance, in Haabersti (to the West of central Tallinn – ed.), residential development has been frenetic in recent decades, with tens of thousands of apartments added, yet only one kindergarten. This clearly is not enough, hence why we are constructing a kindergarten on Paldiski mnt," the deputy mayor continued.

On the planned tram line along Liivalaia, Lippus mentioned an extension to the Kristiine keskus shopping mall, where the city plans to build a Kristiine transit stop. "Anyone who has visited [the mall] knows that it's currently very accessible by bus, trolley, and also by train, but these stops are not exactly right next to each other, and moving between them is somewhat inconvenient," Lippus said.

"The idea of the transit stop is to converge all these different modes of transport, including the tram, in a way that makes it significantly more convenient for people to transfer from one line to another," Lippus continued.

On cycle lanes, Lippus expressed disappointment that the coalition partner, ie. Center, has not moved ahead as quickly as agreed, calling it "somewhat unfortunate."

However, the coalition in Tallinn is functioning yet still, she added.

Speculation has already begun about a potential coalition involving most or all of the opposition parties, plus SDE, toppling the Center Party after two decades of rule in the capital, mostly alone and without being in coalition with another party.

Lippus said: "Especially when looking at the news from the past few days, the situation in Tallinn's coalition seems unstable, but for now, our coalition with the Center Party is still functioning."

"We are moving forward with some vital projects, perhaps not as quickly as we would liked to, but we have a budget and agreements in place, and that's how we operate," she added.

Lippus also spoke about air raid shelters. She said she firmly believes in utilizing existing facilities, or buildings with large basements that can be adapted as shelters. "This is particularly feasible in the city center," she said.

"More challenging areas, where specific or unique solutions need to be developed, are those that have seen active residential development in recent decades but which lack basements in the buildings," she added.

Many new builds in Tallinn have underground parking rather than basements as such; another quotidian problem with some of these facilities is flooding during periods of heavy rainfall.

Lippus added that so far as this year goes, plans for the Tallinn main street project are expected to be finalized. "This has been a topic of discussion from the outset, and we want to make significant progress on it this year," she said.

The creation of a bicycle-sharing system in Tallinn is also planned for this year, Lippus concluded. "This has been a long-discussed topic in Tallinn. We know that Tartu has a system of that kind in place, and it works well. Introducing a bicycle-sharing system in Tallinn is very important in simplifying mobility issues."

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