When my spouse and I moved to our new home in the suburbs of Austin, TX many years ago, our next door neighbor showed up at our door to introduce themselves and give us cookies.
Fast forward to last year, when we moved into a new apartment here in Köpenick. On the very first day, our landlord called to chastise me about leaving boxes stacked up next to the recycle bin. (Something I knew nothing about because it had been done by the IKEA kitchen installers. )Then my middle-aged neighbor dragged me over to the bins to give me a lesson on how to properly sort my trash.
On the topic of illegal parking, please suggest that people report it to authorities, like the Ordnungsamt or using weg.li. Many times the cars are also putting pedestrians and cyclists in danger
It does no good. Reports on weg.li are ignored, and have been for years. I guess you could call the Ordnungsamt but you'd have to wait around for them. You can call the police if the car presents a danger but again: waiting for the Berlin police
I once took a photo of an illegally parked car, and submitted it to the Ordnungsamt. They replied a few days later with a copy- paste template asking for details I'd already given them, and also asking specifically what law had been broken, details of witnesses and more. The takeaway for me is they don't care.
Ordnungsamt specifically say they won't interrupt a patrol to come ticket cars. So if you want something done right now, you can only call the police. But I submitted a report about persistent illegal parking, and although I didn't see them, they obvs came, because a few days later, all the cars that were usually parked there all day were gone.
Aaah, Andrew, you are so right. And it’s what I tell my sceptical, if not downright disbelieving, friends back home in the city of friendly train announcers, when they ask me why I live in Germany. And, of course, I tell them I don’t live in Germany; I live in Berlin, which is not the same thing at all.
As for that story about racism encountered by kids on a summer trip to Brandenburg? Well, I just give in. This country has a massive, and mostly unacknowledged, problem when it comes to racism. It’s very dispiriting, but I see no real signs the country, though not Berlin, is alive to the problem.
I wish I had a car so I could park it anywhere…ha-ha!
Yeah the undercurrent of racism is so nuts. If they adressed the missteps in reunification it would probably go a long way but they won't even do that ... and honestly be glad you don't have a car -- I only got mine so my kids could learn to drive.
When my spouse and I moved to our new home in the suburbs of Austin, TX many years ago, our next door neighbor showed up at our door to introduce themselves and give us cookies.
Fast forward to last year, when we moved into a new apartment here in Köpenick. On the very first day, our landlord called to chastise me about leaving boxes stacked up next to the recycle bin. (Something I knew nothing about because it had been done by the IKEA kitchen installers. )Then my middle-aged neighbor dragged me over to the bins to give me a lesson on how to properly sort my trash.
"Sigh... welcome to Deutschland", I thought.
100%
On the topic of illegal parking, please suggest that people report it to authorities, like the Ordnungsamt or using weg.li. Many times the cars are also putting pedestrians and cyclists in danger
It does no good. Reports on weg.li are ignored, and have been for years. I guess you could call the Ordnungsamt but you'd have to wait around for them. You can call the police if the car presents a danger but again: waiting for the Berlin police
I once took a photo of an illegally parked car, and submitted it to the Ordnungsamt. They replied a few days later with a copy- paste template asking for details I'd already given them, and also asking specifically what law had been broken, details of witnesses and more. The takeaway for me is they don't care.
Ordnungsamt specifically say they won't interrupt a patrol to come ticket cars. So if you want something done right now, you can only call the police. But I submitted a report about persistent illegal parking, and although I didn't see them, they obvs came, because a few days later, all the cars that were usually parked there all day were gone.
Aaah, Andrew, you are so right. And it’s what I tell my sceptical, if not downright disbelieving, friends back home in the city of friendly train announcers, when they ask me why I live in Germany. And, of course, I tell them I don’t live in Germany; I live in Berlin, which is not the same thing at all.
As for that story about racism encountered by kids on a summer trip to Brandenburg? Well, I just give in. This country has a massive, and mostly unacknowledged, problem when it comes to racism. It’s very dispiriting, but I see no real signs the country, though not Berlin, is alive to the problem.
I wish I had a car so I could park it anywhere…ha-ha!
Yeah the undercurrent of racism is so nuts. If they adressed the missteps in reunification it would probably go a long way but they won't even do that ... and honestly be glad you don't have a car -- I only got mine so my kids could learn to drive.