#483: Flower pot death, Indian deportations, a new ferry
Working from home is helping BVG
Hello 20 Percent!
Big thanks to those that came to the Wahlheymat talk on Wednesday. Very good feedback as well as a reminder as to why we do this — helping you stay informed about Berlin. And a special shout out to those that asked questions or chatted with me afterward.
In this working from home era, I’m always surprised how nice and useful it is to also meet in person.
Enjoy the weekend— it’s supposed to get into the teens this weekend (or ‘50s and ‘60s for the celsius-impaired).
Andrew
PS: The latest episode of our podcast is out. It was delayed by Jesus. I probably complain too much about Friedrichshain. And Maurice’s 20% Berlin News Quiz at Electric Social near Alexanderplatz is next Wednesday. Grab a ticket!
Man killed by falling flower pot
A 61-year-old man was killed Monday in Gesundbrunnen after he was struck by a flower pot that fell off a balcony, according to RBB24. Wind is suspected of dislodging the pot, and, at the risk of sounding callous, this terrible accident is a good example of why having Haftplichtversicherung (liability insurance) is a key component of life in Germany. Should a court rule that the renter was negligent in not securing the pot, the renter could be held finanically liable — though courts could also rule that the wind was an act of god an no one is responsible, a lawyer told the site. An insurance company would help in the legal tussle to make that determination.
The Spandau Express?
Maurice said in our podcast that he loves a restaurant ship on the Havel river and BVG will soon launch a tender for a pilot ferry project on the same waterway to help ease the traffic bottleneck from Berlin’s most-maligned suburb into town. According to Tagesspiegel, the ferry would ship commuters between the new Waterkant residential development and Wröhmännerpark, a name only advanced German speakers can pronounce. The ships are expected to carry up to 1,000 passengers a day. It would do little more than get people across the Havel but maybe that’s the issue in Spandau. The BVG operates about half a dozen ferries, including the F24, which is just a rowboat.
Just pee in the bushes then?
One pilot project begins, another ends: 16 of 24 test composting toilets in Berlin parks were removed in March following a three-year test, according to RBB24. The project was originally set to run for just a year but was so popular that it was extended. The parks department will also launch a tender in hopes of getting public toilets — with better accessibility — in more parks by next year. In case you want to test one, the remaining toilets are:
Lichtenberg: Naturerfahrungsraum Herzberge
Mitte: Kulturforum
Steglitz-Zehlendorf: Stadtpark Steglitz, Lauenburger Platz playground
Tempelhof-Schöneberg: Cheruskerpark, Heinrich-Lassen-Park
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg: Engelwiese Alt-Stralau
Treptow-Köpenick: Wuhlheide an der Treskowallee
Students face deportation
At least 200 Indian students had had their visas revoked by Jan. 1 because they incorrectly signed up for online university classes rather than a full-time classroom program in Berlin, according to the Forschung & Lehre trade publication. But courts have yet to fully clarify the rule requiring in-person schooling and have at least partially ruled that if students are enrolled in an online program but attend some classes in Berlin, they may still be eligible for education visas. The problem has arisen with at least eight different private universities in Germany — students often pay up to €20,000 per year for the classes and risk being sent home anyway.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🗞️ Über-publisher Axel Springer’s US ambitions
👶 One-in-five young Germans want out
Factoid
The BVG had planned to buy 1,500 new subways by 2035 to boost the frequency of subterranean trains to one every 3.3 minutes during peak hours but may now cut that order in half, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall). The current target of one subway every four minutes at peak is sufficient, transportation officials claim, because fewer people are commuting thanks to working-from-home. The public transport service would then just need to buy 768 new trains from nearby train maker Stadler — it has budgeted €1.16 billion for new subways by 2035, rather than a previous €1.9 billion. It may also extend the service life of some trains bought in the ‘90s to maintain that goal.
📯 📯 📯 Postkutsche (reader mail) 📯 📯 📯
Jillian York is the reader I wanted to point out with the excellent book about how internet giants control what we read.
I think I'm the writer you mentioned, and my book is Silicon Values :)
And the latest on what floor is the ground floor from yet another reader:
A small note that Norway can also be added to the list of countries where the ground floor is considered the first floor :)
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🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify