The Love of Trams

From Spiegel Online: France Rediscovers Its Love of Trams. France isn't the only one. Freiburg, one of my favorite German cities, also was building new trams in the 1970s. Now Freiburg is easily accessible by tram, with the center actually best reached by tram or bicycle since there isn't much space for parking. All the main streets of the downtown are pedestrianized, although trams use them too. The trams are also really cool - modern, sleek and quiet.

Forming Habits

Interesting NY Times article on forming habits to change behavior. It describes how a public health campaign for washing hands with soap was done similarly to a mass product marketing effort. Companies try to get their product part of their customer's habits, whether it be chips or lotion, so why not washing with soap too?

In the quest to have more sustainable urban places, could similar marketing efforts be used to change behavior? In the quest for convenience, what could be more convenient than having groceries available within 5-10 minutes or on your way home?

My habits in Berlin have certainly been shaped by the offerings available to me: I habitually shop at the market on my street. It's so close, convenient and affordable. The selection isn't huge, but it's so easy to go there and it's better than the other places I pass. I know what they have there and I buy the same things most of the time. It's faster than trying to figure out where to go and what to buy every time.

When I go back to the U.S., I will sorely miss my habit of buying food on my way home. Getting groceries has always been a special trip in the U.S., sometimes more out of the way than others. A German that had been to the U.S. even commented on that: there were plenty of restaurants in his neighborhood, but no grocery stores!

The transportation system (Bahn and Tram here in Berlin) and stores around me have significantly influenced my shopping habits. If the U.S. is to figure out how to drive less than it currently does given the current high oil prices, there needs to be the infrastructure in place that supports different habits.

Back to blogging

So after a long time away from my blog, spending time collecting information and seeing places, I'm going to come back and use it to process all the information I've gathered over the last 6 months. I have a lot of thoughts about what I've seen and done here in Berlin and traveling throughout Europe, so hopefully there are some interesting blog reading forthcoming!

Cultural Differences

A few times I have commented that the cultural differences here in Berlin are minimal, and that I found more differences between Minneapolis and North Carolina than I have between Minneapolis and Berlin. Maybe a better way to phrase that would be that there are fewer differences that I dislike. The dense urbanity of Berlin is an improvement for me; the suburban sprawl that encompasses North Carolina was not.

Some interesting things about Germany that make life in planning and development different:
*Public transportation is a right here. It is in the constitution that it should exist. That is not the case for all European countries, but it is here.
*Housing is also considered a right and if you cannot afford it, you can get subsidized housing. If the government doesn't have enough to provide, then it rents market rate housing for you.
*Some people in the US consider Europe to be socialist. Try telling that to the true socialists here (perhaps communist might be a better term). While they are at the left fringe of the population, they rally against the capitalism that they feel is ruining Germany and the rest of the world.
*Most housing is rental housing in Germany, due at least in part to tax laws and government subsidy programs. However, people often live in the same apartment for a really long time - especially those grandfathered into subsidized rents. However, people often feel a similar attachment to a rental contract as people in the US feel towards property that they own.

What is left?
A tangent on the leftist movement here: Köpi vorerst gerettet - Köpi is saved, for the moment (www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/Koepi;art270,2492514). This leftist culture and housing project, originally a squatter community that legalized their use of the property in 1990, includes a group of residents living communally, some artist space, a bar and various other uses. After country-wide protests and negotiations with the new property owner, the building will not be torn down and the leases will continue for the time being. Check out their website if you're interested: www.koepi137.net/hausprojekte.htm# They have more photos under 'gallery' too. Definitely something you would never see in the US.

Germany's Economy
What is the economic system in Germany? Many people in the U.S. (in particular any right-wing commentators) often consider Europe as socialist or even communist. Within Germany, there is a clear view that Germany is basically a capitalist economy with a concern for social welfare. Graffiti and signs 'gegen Kapitalismus' (against capitalism) - the established system - are common here. For all the true socialists and communists in Germany, their country is clearly NOT following their beliefs. I would love to see a discussion between Rush Limbaugh and some of the true communists in Germany try to figure out what Germany's economic system really is!

CEU Conference in Sundern

I went to the German CEU (Congress for European Urbanism, the counterpart of CNU) conference last weekend. The theme of the conference was “Zwischenstadt,” a book by professor Thomas Sievens (one of the people in attendance), that is celebrating its 10^th birthday. The conference opened with remarks about the book – that after 10 years the book is still relevant today.

Zwischstadt
Since I was at the conference without having read the book, I wasn’t entirely sure what they were referring to (also, it was all in German so I’m never exactly sure what people mean). Now that I’m reading the book (in English), I have a better understanding of the Zwischenstadt concept. As the book states, “The term Zwischenstadt signifies that today’s city is in an ‘in between’ state, a state between place and world, space and time, city and country.” There is no equivalent word to Zwischenstadt in English and the closest one can come is “in-between city” although intermediate- and meta-city were also considered, so the word Zwischenstadt was used through the English edition.

The book describes the natural tendency for human settlements to disperse once the walls of the medieval cities were no longer needed for protection. No one wanted to live in such cramped quarters with little fresh air and dirty streets. Over time, density in Europe has declined from levels currently found in second and third world cities as incomes have risen. The advent of public transit and then the automobile has made this dispersal possible since one can travel farther throughout an entire metropolitan region.

This book is also somewhat controversial since it calls into question the actions of planners trying to resist this natural dispersion by encouraging higher density and more compact places – basically replicating the old city in new areas. I think part of the controversy is that many people had not acknowledged the reality of suburban dispersal before this book. However, the book continued to call for some new “third way” that was not replicating the old city or continuing with suburban sprawl toward an American pattern of development. Yet little was specified about this third way – it remains this fuzzy concept that is better but doesn’t exist yet. And the overtly academic language also tends to abstract ideas to the point of no relevant meaning.

Looking back at my notes from the conference, Harald Kegler, in his presentation of the book’s history also noted that it is “an idea without a clear message.” So in retrospect, my reaction was the same as others and I can see a clearer purpose of the book as something that provokes questions but does not answer them.

Sundern
Other conference highlights included a tour of Sundern, a small town of 29,000 people in western Germany. It has a small downtown and many single-family houses, which is why I think it was noted to be ‘one of the areas most similar to the U.S.’ And it felt like it too: driving through some of the hills of Sundern to get to the conference reminded me of driving through the hills around Lake Minnetonka. It also has the problem of automobile dependence, given its relatively low density and lack of a clear center. In some respects the region functions together as a series of connected towns. Like good planners, we though we might take a bus from the train station one town over to our hotel but when the schedule showed the next bus would be departing in 4 hours at 9 pm, we caught a cab so we could make it to the start of the conference at 5 pm.

Our tour focused on the charrette they had in early 2007 for downtown improvements. Like many small towns, it’s redevelopment potential lie in converting existing parking lots to new buildings. Not so different from your typical project in the U.S.

Sundern Town Hall

The back side of the pedestrian street, with plenty of parking. In the background is the hillside with single-family houses.

Downtown Sundern: a pedestrian street with some shops.

Discussing Planning in the US and Europe
When I was talking informally with people at the conference, we also talked about some differences between the U.S and Europe. One is that American cities have a stronger sense of “community,” which can even become an overused word. But the idea of public participation in their local community politics – including development planning (for better or for worse) – is a part of our culture handed down from the time of the New England local town hall meeting. In Germany, as well as many other European cities, the idea of self-rule is not part of their historical development; for a long time the local kings, lords or other nobles had ruled their turf. With the monarchy system was present until after WWI and a western style democracy not established until after WWII, people were not accustomed to speaking up for how they would to see their community grow. That was something that came from the top, not the bottom.

The Bauhaus School in Dessau

I visited the former bauhaus school in Dessau in early December. The building is now owned by a Foundation and run as a museum and place for events. Their website has good information on the history of the Bauhaus movement - www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/history.asp. Whether you love the architecture or hate it, the Bauhaus building that was completed in 1926 is still one of the earliest “modern” looking buildings.

The Bauhaus movement has some positives and negatives. Its historical setting is important: it occurred during a massive housing shortage in Germany in the period after WWI that was marked by rampant inflation that made many things unaffordable. So the concept of “providing goods and housing that can be reproduced for the masses” was a worthy goal. The idea of large windows providing a lot of light is good and they had many interesting mechanical opening systems. However the expansive windows are only single pane which results in a lot of heat loss and gain. Despite their intention of trying to design something entirely new, they could have learned from the double windows I have in my late 1800s building.

The Bauhaus Building

Red elements were prevalent throughout

While the streetscape side wasn't too bad, rear side of the building was about as interesting as your average parking lot.