Bonn. The GA contributor Martin Wein comments that serious deficiencies at the bus station in Bonn have been known for years, but the reconstruction plans drag on and the pace urgently needs to be increased. For example, a tourist was recently pelted with a bottle, and a bus driver who heard the cries for help did not think it necessary to call the police. The real problem, however, is the overall situation at the bus station: Visitors to Bonn have for years been greeted between the main train station and Kaiserplatz by a reception committee of people drinking alcohol, sometimes begging and without a permanent address, which is not a good advertisement for Bonn, despite understanding for the difficult personal situation of each individual. Many residents perceive the bus station as a place of fear, especially in the evening and at night, and consciously avoid it. For people with handicaps, the bus station, with its narrow bus platforms and unclear signage and traffic routing is a real problem. The closure of the underpass to the main train station, which has been going on for weeks after the water damage in the Maximilian Center, has made the situation even worse.

(Original text: Martin Wein)

Bonn. In an open-plan office on Friedrich-Ebert-Allee, flood relief is currently being provided by the Kissel family, who is organising accommodation for flood victims in hotel rooms in Bonn. People who are looking for accommodation after the devastating flood disaster in the region can call the telephone hotline 0800 9886071, where almost 40 volunteers are working in rotation in the coming days and weeks. Numerous hoteliers and property owners have offered rooms free of charge, and infrastructure and technology are contributed by Telekom. The need for coordination quickly became apparent, says Mareike Kissel, who is coordinating the arrangements with the support of her family.

Even four weeks after the flood, not all of those affected have found suitable temporary housing, says the Bonn real estate entrepreneur. Kissel and her spontaneously convened team have not only been creating temporary housing for weeks, they have also been providing families, couples and individuals with the opportunity to take a breather. "People are usually at breaking point. Many have lost everything and some don't know whether they can return to their houses and apartments," says Timo Kissel, outlining the scenarios with which callers present themselves to the hotline. About 350 people have been accommodated so far and even transfers to the accommodations are also being organised.

The Kissels and their fellow campaigners are looking with concern to the weeks ahead, when many flood victims will have to leave the hotels. Together with the confederation of free apartments (the BFW), Mareike Kissel wants to work on solutions and is already calling for simplifications to bureaucracy in building law and short-term permits.

A donation account has been set up to support the hotline. Further information is also available online at www.nest-invest.de/unterkunftshotline

(Original text: Alexander Barth)

Beuel. Maize plants are shooting sky-high in the fields around Bonn. In Geislar, the plants along the roadside are taller than a man. Among other things, the size of the plants shows whether it is maize for animal fodder, or sweet corn that is intended for human consumption: Sweet corn plants are smaller than forage maize plants, which can reach a height of between 2.5 and 3.0 meters in good years.

This year, the plants benefited from the rainy days in July and August. Researchers assume that maize has been cultivated by humans for about 6,500 years. However, these were not the plants we know today, but the wild form, teosinte. In the sixteenth century, after the discovery of America, maize arrived relatively quickly in Europe and spread from here around the world.

Forage corn is also edible by humans if picked early, but when ripe it is too hard and tastes mealy. Still, don’t just help yourself to it from the fields, as too much picking can cause annoying damage to the harvest and the fields for the farmers.

(Original text: Benjamin Westhoff)

Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. The seven-day coronavirus incidence value for the Rhine-Sieg district was 37.1 on Friday – the first day that it has once again been above the 35 threshold. If the value remains above 35 for eight calendar days, the next incidence level will take effect two days later, which would be next Sunday. On Saturday, the value was 41.3 and the highest incidences are for people aged between 20 and 39.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 24,113 laboratory-confirmed infections with Sars-CoV-2 in the Rhine-Sieg district, and 23,132 people have recovered. Since the beginning of June, 17 people have died from Sars-CoV-2, and 553 have died since the beginning of the pandemic. Currently, 428 people are infected and 830 are in domestic quarantine. The total number of vaccinations carried out in the Rhine-Sieg district is 664,457, and 320,395 people have received complete vaccination protection.

The figures from the municipalities: Alfter (current cases 11), Bad Honnef (12), Bornheim (42), Eitorf (7), Hennef (33), Königswinter (34), Lohmar (6), Meckenheim (20), Much (3), Neunkirchen-Seelscheid (5), Niederkassel (23), Rheinbach (10), Ruppichteroth (1), Sankt Augustin (64), Siegburg (47), Swisttal (9), Troisdorf (73), Wachtberg (23) and Windeck (5).

(Original text: Dylan Cem Akalin)

(Translations: John Chandler)