#389: Swimming in the Spree, super blocks, Friedländer's funeral

Dogs! Berlin has lots of dogs!

There’s no room for cars anyway. Photo: Sascha Kohlmann via CC2.0

Hey 20 Percent!

That game where you’re a billionaire and think about how you’d spend some of your dosh? I’d spend it financing and lobbying for at least two super blocks in each of Berlin’s 12 districts.

For those just tuning in, super blocks are when you close a couple streets to cars so everyone else can enjoy the thoroughfare a bit. Make Berlin that much nicer. If you actually did it, Berlin cars would be banned on less than 10km of the city-state’s 3,400 kms of road.

They wouldn’t even notice.

But our current government just said they were halting financing of super blocks because it makes living with each other and completing daily tasks too difficult. Never mind that nearly every neighboring country has successfully closed select streets to cars for decades — with no rise in fatalities or inflation in the already exorbitant cost of getting a dishwasher repaired.

Maybe call Denmark, the Netherlands or France and ask how they did it. Their residents love it.

I’m not anti-car. I own one but I’m also a bike rider and pedestrian and — my God — the effort it takes to stay safe if you’re not in a car🤦🏽‍♀️. Why aren’t places like Hackescher Markt, some streets around Boxi or even Olivaer Platz not at least partially closed to cars? Imagine the life that would sprout up.

It infuriates me that Berlin can’t at least close a few streets.

Anyway, have a good weekend! But look both ways.

Andrew

We’ve all done it anyway

What would also make life in Berlin nicer? A swimming hole in the Spree river in a forgotten corner of downtown. Flussbad Berlin has been trying to open one for years and are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the criminalization of Spree swimming with a swim-in Tuesday at the site they hope will soon become a public dipping point (you have to register to protest). But their protest rules also highlight why swimming in the Spress is illegal — the water quality may be too bad for the demo, delaying it to one of two other substitute dates. Berlin’s sewer system is ancient and when stormwater overflows, it mixes with sewage and pours into the Spree. Flussbad Berlin wants to decriminalize swimming in the Spree — you should be able to do it at your own risk, they say. You can check the current water quality here.

The German for it is Vorkaufsrecht

Neukölln is also trying to make Berlin better for residents and reached an agreement with an investor to not convert apartments into condominiums or long-term rentals, according to taz. The borough said it wouldn’t exercise its right of first refusal to buy the Rixdorf building at the intersection of Richard and Braunschweiger streets if the new owner agreed to maintain rents for current residents and not do the shitty things too many landlords are doing (short-term rentals, renovations to raise rent, evictions). Let’s hope they keep their word. Boroughs in certain protected neighborhoods have a right of first refusal to buy buildings but a lack of finances and legal constraints means it rarely happens.

Friedländer’s funeral

Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Weißensee Thursday, according to the Jüdische Allgemeine. She died May 9 at the age of 103. She was interred in Theresienstadt, where the Nazis murdered her parents and brother. She was then freed by the Soviet army. Friedländer emigrated to the US but then returned to Berlin 15 years ago. She constantly spoke about her time under the Nazis and warned about the rise of antisemitism in Europe.

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Factoid

Berlin currently has 140 fewer registered dogs than a year ago, or 131,260 canines, according to Tagesspiegel. We likely have lots more because that number is only the animals for which the dog tax is paid. The drop is because fewer dogs were registered in Tempelhof (-750) and even though Lichtenberg and Wedding have a total 450 new four-legged friends. In any case, that figure is 20,000 dogs higher than in 2019. Berlin charges €120 per year for your first dog and €180 for every additional pooch (or a total €4.03 million per year).

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