The myth of the well-administered German city
I’m sure you might misunderstand this text, so let’s put it upfront: Leonberg (71229) is a charming little town in Baden-Württemberg. There are many other lovely little towns in the area, each having its own style, both in the old center and in the newer neighborhoods: Gerlingen and Rutesheim are only a few kilometers away.
But Leonberg, my town, is probably the most suited one in the area for families with kids. Counting the districts of Eltingen, Höfingen, Gebersheim and Warmbronn, there are 8 elementary schools in Leonberg (of which Schellingschule and Spitalschule are in the “old” Leonberg), the mixed-level August-Lämmle-Schule, two middle schools (of which Gerhart-Hauptmann-Realschule nearby), two high schools (Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium and Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium, both near Gerhart-Hauptmann-Realschule and Schellingschule), and then you have the Pestalozzischule, a vocational college, and possibly more (a music school, etc.). Oh, and did I mention the kindergartens? They are about 30 (unfortunately, some with religious affiliations: 8 are evangelical, and 4 catholic), of which I can vouch for the ones in Spitalhof and in Stadtpark (Kinderhaus Stadtpark and Martha-Johanna-Haus).
There seems to have been a spree of public investment in social buildings in the 70s and 80s, and I really like the architectural style of most of these schools. The love for “bare concrete” (beton brute), the Le Corbusier style, is simply impressive–and one can also see it in the swimming pool (Hallenbad Leonberg). Oh, and there is even a much more recent building that shares the same “retro-futuristic” style: the Triangel, a fabulous canteen made for the use of Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium, Gerhart-Hauptmann-Realschule, and Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium. There are also several Seniorenzetren, of which I know the Seniorenzentrum am Parksee and ASB Pflegezentrum Glemstalblick. Lots of social services too–Leonberg is a good place to live for the elderly as well. (There is also a hospital, and a helicopter station. The hospital was threatened with a closedown, but thanks to a huge citizens mobilization in 2014-2015, with “LEO Krankenhaus muss bleiben,” the hospital is still there.)
Dwelling-wise, beyond the old houses in Altstadt, and newer buildings around, there are entire streets of beautiful houses e.g. in the area between Reiterstadion, Seestraße, and Römerstraße (in the part with the Feuerwehr). From Blumensraße to Schleiermacherstraße, and the even southern from Römerstraße and east from Berliner Straße, lots and lots of interesting houses of different styles. Should you prefer the blocks of flats, they are less impressive in Leonberg (or rather in Eltingen); one can find a fabulous neighborhood of blocks of flats with lots of green space in Gerlingen, south of Feuerbacher Straße, from the Gerlingen Siedlung U6 tram stop to the corner of Bergheimer Weg with Jakob-Bleyer-Straße. (I know, I’ve already left my town, but since I mentioned Gerlingen, the U6 end stop in the old center is fabulous, just across the new public library; and then, once in Gerlingen, Schloss Solitude is not that far away…)
And the park: how many small towns have such a park as the one in Leonberg? But I guess it’s time to end with the good parts and express the critical aspects that made me write this blog post.
When someone comes from Central and Eastern Europe (or maybe Russia), and even from France or Italy, they expect to find in Germany an embodiment of what the myth said of Germans to be like; they expect to find Ordung und Disziplin, and an efficient administration. Does Germany live up to the old myth? I’m afraid it doesn’t, despite the fact that Baden-Württemberg is one of the richest Länder–only Bayern is richer, I guess (but Bayern is different, it even used to be a different country in the times of Prussia).
Since I came here, I was literally shocked to see that the town hall, or the city council, or whoever is responsible of the city development and regulation–most such services must be in either of Altes Rathaus am Marktplatz, or Neues Rathaus am Belforter Platz–doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do. Despite the town being reasonably clean and orderly, there are so many aspects that show a deficient city management, in ways that make you ask yourself: “am I really in Germany, or am I in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria?”
Let’s start with the small things. There is a small passageway in Martkplatz 17 that goes into Zwerchstraße, some 50 meters away from Altes Rathaus. Guess how is it looking for the last two years already? Like this (click to enlarge):
Gallery not found.The approved period for such works has expired years ago. Then why isn’t anyone penalizing with a hefty fine the owner of this authorization? For Christ’s sake, the old town hall is 20 seconds away on foot! The passageway should have been left clean when the works ended… some 2 years ago.
Gallery not found.UPDATE: The small passageway had the scaffolding magically removed in the morning of Friday, July 28, 2017! It took them three years, from summer 2014 to summer 2017! I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there might be some stupid law that didn’t allow them to confiscate and remove the abandoned material unless 3 years have passed. This is the decrepit status of the European Union legislation anyway.
That was a tiny issue, yet an exasperating one, showing the impotence of the so-called city hall. Let’s proceed to a public works episode that made me feel as if I were in Eastern Europe or Russia.
Starting July 2015, the sewage system had to be changed on Bahnhofstraße (the portion marked in red), then on Rutesheimer Straße (marked in yellow). The works were to be started at the beginning of July, but for 3 or 4 weeks the company in charge for the works didn’t do anything. When they finally started the works, it was like this: for about 2 days a week, a few workers were toiling, then nothing. The next week, the same style, but it was impossible to determine which will be the days when the construction company would actually send some workers. Just like in Eastern Europe, I’m certain that the company won in public procurement procedures too many contracts, well over its capacity of simultaneously carry out all of them. They consequently “intertwined” the works at different construction sites with a single team of workers! Once again, is this Germany, or Romania?!
That’s not all. If my memory serves me well, the works should have ended in January 2016, but they were postponed through April. I don’t remember all the details, but the work on Rutesheimer Straße was speedier than on Bahnhofstraße. And in the last months there were weeks when they really worked 5/7. Still, they weren’t on schedule, and giving that Rutesheimer Straße is the road to the hospital, forcing the ambulances to take detours because of careless planning is simply criminal! In all, it took about 10 months.
Interlude: see the large vacant lot in the picture above? I’ll get to it later. End of interlude.
So you’re now expecting me to say that the works are done and everything is fine. Well, not so fast. Three months after the end of the works, here’s what we can see at the angle of the two streets (click to enlarge):
Gallery not found.In the images 1, 2, and 5, you can see unfinished works on the sidewalk, with thick cables emerging from a hole that’s barely covered with a wooden footbridge. How could the construction company get the money when the works are not finished? Who’s the idiot who signed a contract that doesn’t have a condition for, say, the last 25% of the sum to be paid only if everything is completed?! People in Central and Eastern Europe are criticizing their mayors when such things happen (and they happen all the time, all right), but here in Germany… umm… nothing?
The worst part is that the right traffic lane as you go on Rutesheimer Straße was left with a portion made impracticable by those signalizing posts that block the lane for absolutely no reason at all! The asphalting ended some three months ago, yet the morons left the street as you can see–and nobody moved a finger! Those posts are not illuminated at night (the law requires that!), although they were lighted during the works–but now the batteries are dead. During the last 2-3 months I noticed some of them tumbled by unsuspecting drivers: who’s going to pay for the damages? I hope that the drivers whose cars were affected are suing the Rathaus of whoever was supposed to to inspect the works when they ended and the contractor asked for the last payment. Also, whose task is to notice road obstacles that are not marked in accordance with the law? What the fuck is the Polizei doing in this town?
The sixth photo (taken in an evening) shows a small excavator parked in the isolated area. I thought they were going to fix the cable works on the opposite sidewalk, but no: the next day it was gone. What mockery was this?
Judging the passers-by too dumb to so something (anything!), I tried to move those signalizing posts on the sidewalk, so they wouldn’t block anymore the street when there’s no need for that. Unfortunately, they are too heavy, or rather their platforms are heavy and cannot be lifted by grabbing the pole.
But maybe the Oberbürgermeister is too busy building his dream. You see, this city of 47.500 inhabitants (of which 20% are foreigners) decided that the “old” Neues Rathaus, built in 1960 and used as Neues Rathaus (in addition to the Altes Rathaus) since 1973 is not good anymore, and that they want a modern, soulless “new” Neues Rathaus. The new building costs 12 million euros, and the sanitation costs raise the bar to 14-15 million euros. The entire urban planning for the area (I’ll get to this later) has a budget of 25 million euros! About 2.7 million euros are given by the federal Städtebauförderung des Bundes und der Länder, but for the rest… (I thought there is some sort of austerity in Germany, right?)
Gallery not found.Now, they simply cheated in this brochure. Look at the last two pictures, where they complain that the existing building is kaputt, that it cannot be used anymore, because there is corrosion around the water and sewage pipes, there are fallen tiles, and so on. With all this whining, I thought they’re going to replace the old building with the new one, but guess what? The new building is an addition to the old one, and the two are connected! If this is not megalomania, I don’t know what it is.
It’s actually easy to notice that the tiles on the old building have already been replaced on a part of the building–at the left in the first two pictures:
Gallery not found.An ironic fact: the street that goes by the Neues Rathaus is called Lindenstraße. In order to build the “new” Neues Rathaus, they killed about 40 linden trees! The third picture is taken by me on Feb. 26, 2015, after they cut all the trees:
Gallery not found.Yeah. It was all legal: Rathaus-Neubau: Jetzt müssen die Bäume weichen.
According to Wikipedia, Herr Oberbürgermeister Bernhard Schuler was between 1987 to 1989 the head of the Environmental Protection Agency of the Zollernalbkreis, then until 1992 he worked in the central office of the Ministry of the Environment of Baden-Württemberg. Oh, the irony…
By the way, he was elected once in 1993, then a second time in 2001, for another 8-year term, then… a third time in 2009! The German democracy is a bit peculiar. Indeed, the term of office for a Mayor in Baden-Württemberg is generally eight years, no matter in most civilized (and even not-so-civilized) countries the term is generally of 4 or 5 years (6 years in France). It’s no wonder that the city management is so pathetic, as long as someone can be mayor for life, or for at least 24 years! And I thought Stalin, Brezhnev, Ceaușescu, Honecker, Mao, Kim Il-sung etc. were dictators! Here we can have a same person reigning over a city indefinitely. Why are people even going to vote if they always elect the same person? Generally, only the number of mandates of a President of a republic is limited in most countries, but a mayor can be elected indefinitely–a sort of a local monarch. A few countries (e.g. Romania) tried to limit a person’s right to be elected as mayor to two 4-year terms, but I don’t know if they actually passed such laws. Either way, people in Leonberg trusted this mayor for 24 years, but after only 2 years I already consider him unfit for the job. Well, at least he’s going to have this Versailles of a “new” Neues Rathaus…
Note that the above paragraph is not an ad hominem attack; it’s just a matter of principle. And this blog post lists only a few of the Mangeln I’ve notice in the management of this city. Should I really want to dig for such issues, I’m sure I’d find hundreds more. What I don’t understand is why the general public and the press are silent on such topics. Are they uninterested? Are they afraid? Afraid of what? To the extent of my knowledge, the Gestapo isn’t operating anymore in this country!
But I promised I’ll get back with an issue. In the brochure about the “new new city hall”…
…there is a portion marked “Ehemaliges Bausparkassen Areal”–no further explanation is given. I suppose that this area was cleared of what used to be there before (let me guess: some more trees and green space?) in order to build some Wohnungen, but then the project was canceled. Here’s how this area looks like today:
Gallery not found.What the brochure doesn’t say: after the new city hall is ready in 2017, what’s going to happen to this area? Is a housing project eventually going to be developed? Is a new park going to be built? This is an open wound and an eyesore, and definitely not what one would expect from a town in Baden-Württemberg!
Or maybe it’ll suffer the fate of Stuttgart 21, the controversial project that started to be planned since 1994, it got a plan in 1996, and now, 20 years later, is nowhere near completion (the tunnels are at about 28%), and the budget of 6.5 billion euros almost tripled!
Moving forward, let me present you another public project whose management is not up to what a foreigner would expect from Germany: the Sauna im Hallenbad, opening on Sept. 18, 2016!
It’s a fucking small sauna attached to the municipal swimming pool, it’s not the Kosmodrom Baikonur! The idea of a sauna started in January 2013. By the end of the summer, and out of three different projects, a variant costing 1.5 million euros was selected. It was supposed to be ready for the Christmas 2013!
Everything seems to be a horror story in today’s Germany. Unlike the Berlin Brandenburg Airport though, this sauna is actually ready now. After several changes of project, in October 2014, the current version has been approved, for a cost of 2.7 million euros.
The construction started after the Easter 2015. So it took about 16 months to build this crap? I witnessed the works: most of the time nobody was doing anything! Once in a while, a couple of workers came and they seemed to be doing something. Two days a month at most. Yeah, this is Germany. Again, not Russia. Not Romania. Germany.
And the swimming pool with the new sauna is just across the street from… I’m sure you guessed: the Neues Rathaus! Bingo!
Gallery not found.Looking from the Sauna im Hallenbad towards the Neues Rathaus, one cannot help but notice some weeds on the middle strip between the lanes (the first 2 pictures in the following sequence). Neglected, over-grown and uncared-for greenery can be seen in many other places of Leonberg, such as in near Römergalerie on Eltingerstraße (last 4 images):
Gallery not found.This is all too common. I could wander around the town and literally take hundreds of similar pictures in different places. Tremendous city management. Is this mayor ever concerned about how “his” city looks like?
I decided to skip some other issues–I’m not going to write a PhD thesis on the city of Leonberg!–yet I’ll mention one of the many stupid things related to the traffic management.
You’re on Mühlstraße and you’re going towards the train station on the left sidewalk. Wrong choice! The sidewalk ends abruptly with a stripe meant to accommodate 4 or 5 parked cars. WTF? How are people supposed to continue their route, ad there’s no crossing zebra? In theory, they should go up the stairs marked with a green arrow and continue on Bahnhofstraße until they reach the official crossing:
Gallery not found.Knowing that in Germany people normally don’t cross the street on the red light even when there’s no car on a 1 km radius, this street design is pure idiocy. Who really needed those parking places?
Maybe Leonberg is just fine. Maybe I’m expecting from people to show a minimum of intelligence, and people usually don’t have any trace of intelligence, common sense, or management skills.
Let’s try to find a lighter one. Pomeranzengarten is a very nice place in Leonberg–see here, here, and here. And it’s not just the garden itself, there’s also an adjacent park with a playing place for kids.
At two ends of this compound there are gates that are locked during the night. In the 1-bit logic that characterizes the management of most parks on planet Earth, there are two schedules. Here, the opening hours are as follows (sorry for the quality, it was taken at 9:21 PM):
So, through Sept. 30, the park closes at 10 PM, but all of a sudden, on Oct. 1, the gates close at 6 PM. The Sun decides, all of a sudden, to go to sleep… four hours earlier?! Even taking into account the DST, this is ridiculous. I suppose it’s rocket science to have 4 schedules instead of 2, and to change the closing hour in increments of 1-2 hours? (Note that in the morning the park opens at 8, no matter what, 365 days a year!)
OK, this is the city I’m living in. It has many more incongruities, but some of the readers might say “take it or leave it.” Let’s say I’ll take it the way it is–if everyone else is either happy with the situation or they simply don’t care, who am I to tell them they’re wrong? Over 80% of them are citizens of the Bundesrepublik, and I’m not!
Yet, as peaceful as this city is, I grew a bit concerned about public safety. The other day I was on the Stohrerstraße and, just across the church (the Katholische Kirche Sankt Johannes), an extremely noisy group of 6-7 Syrians of 20-24 years (yes, they looked like they were from Syria!) were… sorry for the term… barking in Arabic, and very loud at that. This city is full of dozens of nationalities, and normally there are no problems related to that, but this group was in a sort of an ecstatic state, they were aggressive, uncontrollable and extremely rude. I’m happy I wasn’t on their sidewalk!
You see, this is no Britain here. No street cameras. Nada. Not a single one. The police is invisible, apart from rare patrol cars. You even need to use an intercom to enter the Polizeirevier–what the heck, one can freely enter the Altes Rathaus in Marktplatz 9 (it hosts the following services: Ausländeramt, Bürgeramt, Ordnungsamt, Standesamt), yet the Polizei is afraid that people would take them by surprise and what, kill them, free the prisoners?! Technically, one can be robbed, mugged, raped or killed in front of the police station or on the opposite sidewalk, and there is no one to notice: no police officer in front of the building, and no CCTV camera!
Therefore, when a group of potentially dangerous rascals is approaching, what is one supposed to do? Pray to God?
I mentioned the Ordnungsamt, which is a sort of a community police (something that in France is called police municipale, as opposed to the “normal” police, called police nationale). I saw two cars of theirs three times in two years, and they had no beacon lights (in other countries they do have such lights, albeit only blue, not blue-red). I’m not sure what they’re supposed to do, they seem to be doing exactly nothing.
Knowing that the public order here is not assured preventively, but only post factum (“Hello, 110/112? Someone just killed Hans, come quickly!”), I’m a tad worried that my neighborhood is deteriorating. Since the bar Da Franco opened on April 22 in the premises of the former bar Fortuna, it become visited by the worst possible category of Italians–some very shady people, and coming from Southern Italy if we’re to judge by the accent. Now there is a rectangle with 3 sensitive spots I’ve marked on the following map, places where questionable people are hanging around most of the day:
Do you believe there’s anyone who cares about that? Of course there isn’t. The Landespolizei doesn’t care. The Ordnungsamt doesn’t care (see how close they are on the above map). Maybe I’m getting paranoid, but this used to be a very peaceful place and I don’t want it to change.
If you’re reading this as a non-German, I’d like to have your opinion regarding the issues mentioned above. Thank you.
___
NOTE: I was unfair with Eltingen. The area that was probably the core of the old Eltingen, which is around Carl-Schmincke-Straße (where you have the Stadtarchiv Leonberg), with the church and the Kirchengemeinde Leonberg-Eltingen on Kirchbachstraße, is fabulous. Going north on Poststraße up to Brennerstraße you’ll find on both sides cozy streets with nice houses. A great neighborhood with a kindergarten, an elementary school with a modern canteen, and plenty of tranquility.
As someone posted a link to this post on Reddit, I want to clarify a few things with regards to the uninformed opinions of some Brit.
1. The abandoned scaffolding was not because they wanted to discourage graffiti. As a matter of fact, the graffiti is very much there and it’s not that bad. You don’t need much of a company that could “go bust or something” to paint such a small area–two people in two days would be enough.
2. There was NO preparatory work whatsoever in the 3 or 4 weeks of July when the works failed to start. I was fucking there every single day, I know the street and everything. Redditers should refrain from speculating on things they simply don’t have any information about. There were no “undiscovered pipes,” no “unexploded bomb,” and no tomb of Tutankhamen either. My comparison with “Romania/Russia/etc.” was made exactly because in such countries public works start the same way: they block the street, then for some time you don’t see anyone attempting anything in the area!
3. The “chronic shortage of manual labourers” is not an excuse. If you won a contract for a Bauprojekt, you either do it, or you shouldn’t have applied for it in the first place. Besides, when you show up with some workers and equipment, this means you DO have them, but you’re probably sharing them between projects. Because of that, instead of finishing one project in two months, THEN finishing the next project after two more months, and so on SEQUENTIALLY, you block the streets for ALL projects for 12-18 months and perform some works here and there by moving the same team, thus potentially keeping an entire city in a lamentable status (both in terms of traffic jams and purely from an aesthetic or sanitary standpoint). But it looks that people who comment on Reddit (why they never comment on the actual blog post, those retards?) are happy with this kind of cheating!
4. There couldn’t be any possible plan to widen the sidewalk on Rutesheimer Straße, because as it happens, the buses have difficulties in turning in that hairpin corner with the current setting! Also, it can’t be that “the local council carries out a test, by putting in a temporary construction and then monitoring the situation to see if it has the intended effect before giving the go-ahead to make it permanent,” simply because the posts are not illuminated during the night, cars are occasionally bumping into them, and everything is neglected and abandoned.
5. Yes, the law DOES require them to be illuminated at night, and every single road work that has such posts outfits at least the posts at both ends with battery-powered yellow or red lights. I don’t care what the law says in the UK, and I didn’t read the German law either, but it’s easy to notice how every construction site is marked in this country! If it weren’t for a legal requirement, why would everyone bother? There are some costs associated with it…
6. Only a moron would think that “there is definitely a reason those posts are there”–but again, in the UK there is definitely a reason that Queen is there. Those posts are only encumbering the traffic. I can see this every single day.
7. Here’s an opinion about cutting those 40 linden trees: they’ll plant new ones to replace them anyway, even if not in the same place. Aaaand…. “Since growing trees actually produce more oxygen than fully-grown trees, this is actually more environment-friendly than you might suppose.” This is crazy. Let’s then cut ALL the trees and plant new ones–you know, young trees that look like carrots, with a dozen of leaves at most. We’ll have so much more oxygen!
8. Neues Rathaus: “The reason part of the current building is going to remain is that it contains 1,800 metres of shelves for archived documents, so it’s connected to the new building. Contrary to what the author believes, the rest of the current building will be demolished.” Oh, so they changed the wall tiles because they’ll demolish it later? And they connected it to the new building so it will be much more difficult to demolish it without damaging the new one, which has so many glass in the structure? That’s the wisest possible approach! But hey, it’s nice that someone googled for me and that they have a better understanding of German than me!
9. With regards to the “Ehemaliges Bausparkassen Areal,” the Brit says: “If the author speaks German, he should realize that what was there before was something belonging to the local Bausparkasse, probably offices or something. It may have had to be demolished (perhaps the building was unsafe, for example) and the area is now ready for redevelopment.”
OK, I’ve found two press articles on the subject. Stuttgarter Nachrichten, 28.06.2012, Pleite-Brache in Leonberg verkauft; and Leonberger Kreiszeitung, 06.07.2014, Intellektuell oder doch lieber idyllisch?
That wasteland looks like this after a complex of old buildings has been demolished in May 2009. Initially the property of Leonberger Bausparkasse, then since 1999 of Wüstenrot & Württembergische, the land has been purchased by Rudolf Häussler (Häussler-Gruppe) in 2008. Then he went bankrupt, and now the property belongs to the construction company Layher GmbH & Co. KG, who bought the land to build 16 apartment buildings with 188 apartments.
The initial housing project was described as “idyllic,” but now it’s more “intellectual.” It looks like there were some heated debates concerning the height of these buildings, but the mayor finally approved a project that would have “a calming effect on the psyche.”
So eventually the works will start… some day.
10. On the topic of the 16 months needed to build that small sauna. Again, the excuse of the chronic shortage of builders in Germany. Sigh. When you don’t have workers, you don’t sign a contract stipulating that you’ll build something!
Well, I’m through. And the cowards are only commenting on Reddit…
Yeah, makes sense to answer a post on reddit here…
Reddit is for morons and assholes. When you read a fucking article that supports commenting, the courteous and sensible thing is to comment at the source–blog, newspaper, Facebook, whatever.
Why did you post the link to reddit in the first place then?
There is no link, Dummkopf. I never post links to Reddit.
I forgot to mention another “brilliant” idea of the city of Leonberg, this time belonging to the Bürgermeister Ulrich Vonderheid, not to our beloved Oberbürgermeister. It’s the Altstadt-Linie 630, a minibus line running as a shuttle between Marktplatz und Leo-Center: 7 minutes in one direction, and 13 minutes the return trip. It started on October 1, 2015 for a trial period of 3 months, then it got a second chance, despite the fact that the average load was of 3.3 passengers, and the VVS requires at least 5 passengers per journey. The estimated deficit was modest, of only 92,000 euros, but the line had to be discontinued end-August 2016. It’s not just that 1.20 € (1.30 € in 2016) for a 7-minute trip was judged expensive by some, but there were very few new customers–those who purchase tickets, not existing owners of VVS monthly tickets. The advertising was rather bad, but it wasn’t the main cause of the failure.
The problem? I could tell from the very first day that this idea was meant to fail. I live in the area and I go by foot from Marktplatz to Leo-Center quite often. From the beginning the idea looked stupid, as if someone really wanted to waste money for the sake of spending it, or as if the city council had absolutely no idea about what the inhabitants of this city would need and would use (if they need to pay for it).
Now they have another idea: the Stadtwerke Leonberg will take over the SSB bus line 94, which means they would be able to change its route, possibly in a way that could benefit those who need to travel between Altstadt and Leo-Center or Stadtpark.
I’m not a nit-picker, I’m just able to see the things the way they are, and this includes misspending, poor planning, careless acceptance of public works, and non-working ideas.
By the way, I always judged as non-working the following two ideas: Google’s Project Ara, and Elon Musk’s hyperloop. You know what just happened to Ara, don’t you?
Oh well… those posts on the street were left there for a couple of months because they wanted to… paint what you see below:
They needed months for that! That’s German efficiency. German project management. German decrepitude.
Also, while forbidding that area for the traffic might make sense from a visibility standpoint, almost everyone cuts the line while turning right, simply because it’s natural to do so.
Morons.
Sunteți un om așa cum îmi place mie.
Făcând zilnic “slalom printre idioți” când vă citesc articolele mi se umple inima văzând că mai există oameni normali. Normali după criteriile mele de normalitate.
Sunt profesor de matematică și “calculatorist”, născut în 1967.
Mi-ar plăcea să stăm la un “pahar de vorbă” cândva.
Până atunci vă trimit un gând bun din București.
Two more months later, on Dec. 12, here’s what happened:
That was rocket science. (Scroll up to where I wrote «unfinished works on the sidewalk, with thick cables emerging from a hole that’s barely covered with a wooden footbridge» if you want to know what it looked like before.)
Oh, no: they have actually demolished parts of the “old” Rathaus (everything but the main 6-storey building). This idiotic approach of “let’s demolish everything that’s older than 50 years but not a historical building” is killing me.
Yeah, they couldn’t possibly have repaired the old building. They had too much space.
Neues Parkhaus am Bahnhof Leonberg opened mid-July 2016, but the adjoining stairway to the upper street needed some more 3-4 months of extremely slow work. Then for about 5 months the lower part of the stairway couldn’t be used, simply because the railings marked with red arrows couldn’t be delivered, so that at the green arrow the pedestrian traffic had to go through the parking’s own stairs! (The lower part was blocked for security reasons: no balustrades!)
Fabulous StadtWerke, fabulous city administration, brilliant mayor! Herr Oberbürgermeister Bernhard Schuler shouldn’t have been elected 3 times * 8 years, and the building company shouldn’t have got the last 25% of the money until the very last detail was implemented and delivered.
Idiots.