#259: BVG strike, car sharing chaos, Tesla denied
#259: BVG strike, car sharing chaos, Tesla denied
Happy birthday Erich Kästner!
Hey 20 Percent,
Shortly after my German wife and I began dating we had a discussion about our favorite movies.
When I was a kid, I told her, I loved this Disney movie about two girls who went to summer camp and gradually figured out they were twins — one living in the city with their father and the other in the boonies with their mother (or the other way around). They decided to play a trick on their parents and switched places when they were picked up, leading to their parents’ reconciliation.
You’re insane, my wife countered. That’s not a Disney joint, she said, that’s Doppelte Löttchen (Two Lotties) by German author Erich Kästner.
Turns out, we were both right — he wrote it. Disney made the movie (he’s even right there in the Disney credits).
Why am I telling you this? He was born on this day in 1899 in Dresden and lived in Berlin from 1927 to 1945. He wrote heaps about the city including the novel Fabian in 1931. He was the only author present during Nazi book burnings that saw his forbidden works set aflame.
Take this as a book recomendation if you’re looking for something to read this weekend (and, btw, have a good weekend!).
Andrew
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This week’s strike ticker: The BVG again
The next chapter of the Year of Discontent™ will begin Thursday, February 29 when BVG (which operates trams, buses, U-Bahns and — yes — ferries in Berlin) will strike from 12am Thursday to 2pm Friday (March 1). The S-Bahns will be running because they’re operated by Deutsche Bahn. For our Potsdam readers, your public transport companies will only strike for the 24 hours that are March 1 (don’t say we don’t care about you). Union Verdi wants BVG workers to have longer breaks and claims the transport companies in Brandenburg are trying to negotiate worse working conditions. Private to politicians and government employers: Dumping money into the population via raises/improved working conditions is one way to combat voter disenfranchisement.
That Uber seemed sketchy because it was
Thinking of grabbing an Uber during the strikes? Think again. At least 1,000 of the 5,500 car-sharing cars in Berlin are operating without a license, according to RBB24. The apps only assign rides to individual car-rental and limousine service companies, many of which are operating without a license. Everyone from the services to Berlin’s Ordnungsamt said they’re very aware of the problem but have done little to combat it despite the risk to customers (cars may be uninsured and drivers untrained) because — wait for it — Datenschutz (privacy laws) hinder an exchange of information between licensing authorities and the companies. SPD politician Tino Schopf says the number of illegal cars is more likely 2,000 and claims he’s been hassling the Ordnungsamt for at least a year to do something — as has Freenow, which wants a level playing field.
Tesla fails to spark voter interest in expansion
Voters in Grünheide early this week staged their own kind of strike against über-electic-carmaker Tesla, rejecting the expansion of its plant and battery factory southeast of Berlin to take related logistics (including the delivery of new cars) off area streets and onto rail, according to Tagesspiegel. Citizens feared the expansion would further tap the area’s stretched water resources but Tesla brass said it wouldn’t affect water at all. Following the vote, Tesla promised to both better include locals in its planning and continue with the expansion plans, which would include the construction of a new cargo train station. The vote was non-binding but the Grünheide mayor said he wouldn’t even present the plan for approval to a citizen commmittee because they had already effectively rejected it. Without the new station, Tesla said 1,000 truck trips would be necessary per day in the area.
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Factoid
The Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, Friday will vote on the legalization of marijuana. If it’s approved, possession of up to 25 grams will become legal April 1 and a structure for marijuana clubs will become legal July 1. The idea is that you can only own and smoke it if you play a role in growing it via a club or at home(max three plants). Approval by the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, is not needed, according to BR.
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Reader Pascal Vilhelmsson wrote a piece contemplating the viability of balcony solar — the Berlin government will pay you €500 to put solar panels on your balcony. It doesn’t really make sense, Pascal says.
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Tesla just won’t give up. No matter what the people of Grünheide say, they will be pushing for it. I literally snorted by coffee through my nose laughing yesterday, as some guy concluded that it was all just a misunderstanding between Tesla and the locals, caused by poor communication. As if in: had Tesla used those magic words, the people would have rejoiced and stamped off Musk’s expansion plans at once. Mark my words. Tesla ain’t taking no for an answer, so start hugging those trees goodbye now - all 100 hectar of it.