#403: Spiking at Matrix, School woes, Regulating furnished rentals
The fire department published its annual report and it's a doozy!
Hey 20 Percent!
Happy Fourth of July to my other fellow Americans out there — and I only say “happy” because we’re living here, not there. Imagine passing a policy bill so flawed that even Vice President Elon Musk hates it.
Poverty in the world’s richtest country was already depressing, now it’s going to become horrifying. Imagine having more money than anyone but being fine with people living in tents and not being able to get the care (health or otherwise) they need? Inhuman.
But I’m reassured by one thing in this whole mess — I’ll be part of history having voted in what was likely the last federal election over there.
Sorry, just letting off a little steam. Enjoy the weekend! At least it’s not as hot anymore and maybe it’ll rain a little again.
Andrew
Our summer biergarten party is just a few weeks off. We’ll record a podcast during the event so you can watch me make fun of Maurice live! We’re trying to sort the tech but you can get tix here.
Furnished rentals to be regulated? Maybe.
But it’s not just rich Americans who can be inhuman — many landlords here fit that bill! Four Berlin Bezirke are looking for ways to cap temporary furnished rentals as landlords exploit the loophole in rental law to gouge renters, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall). Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Pankow as well as the Berlin administration are looking for ways to outlaw the practice in Milieuschutzgebiete — areas with special renter protections designed to prohibit gentrification. Landlords can circumvent federal rent caps and other renter protections by adding exorbitant fees for apartment furnishings — a practice that is skyrocketing rents in Berlin and removing valuable stock from the regular rental market. The fact that politicians are talking about such a serious issue is nice but it also means any benefit for renters is months — if not years — away.
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The weird German tiered schooling system
And bureaucracy is, by definition, inhuman, which is only magnified if you have kids here because your bureaucratic workload doubles — if not triples. Berlin recently introduced minimum grades for elementary school students to graduate to Gymnasium, Germany’s university-track schools (a 2.2, for those who understand German grading). Kids who don’t have the grades can spend a day at a Gymnasium taking tests to try to make it anyway — but only 2.6% of those who tried were successful this year, according to RBB24. The result? Berlin’s other secondary schools (Sekundarschulen and Gesamtschulen) are now over-crowded, putting the less-advantaged at an even greater disadvantage, according to taz. Berlin’s school officials say that’s Quatsch — all Berlin schools are overcrowded and kids can be forced to take commutes of up to an hour to get to less crowded schools.
Spiking at Matrix?
An unfortunate reminder to be careful out there: Police are investigating two men after nine clubgoers needed medical attention late Wednesday at Matrix, according to RBB24. Two women complained of pain in their upper arms, raising the spectre of “spiking” where someone jabs victims with a syringe — most recently 150 woman were reportedly spiked at Fete de la Musique celebrations in France. Police found no syringes on the two Matrix suspects after arresting them near Warschauer Brücke early Thursday.
Another Flixbus Unfall
And speaking of being careful — yet another accident with a Flixbus near Berlin. One of the discount coaches veered off the A19 Autobahn in northern Mecklenburg Western Pommerania at about 3am Friday, injuring 22, including 1 severely, according to t-online. The bus was traveling from Copenhagen to Vienna and would have made stops in Berlin — the highway was closed for 12 hours to deal with the single bus wreck. Two people were killed in a snowy Flixbus accident in January at the Uckermark interchange an hour north of Berlin.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
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Factoid
Fire department stats for 2024! The fire department’s annual report is an impressive publication, if you like fire departments AND German.
Total calls: 532,157 vs. 514,866 in 2023 (+3.4%)
Longest call: 7 days, 2 hours, 22 minutes (Fire in Lichterfelde factory in May 2024)
Budget: €462,214,606
Female firefighters: 4%
Calls on New Years: 820
A comment of appreciation for the Feuerwehr