South City in Bonn Residents demand opening of meeting place at the carousel for drug scene
Bonn · A wooden fence at the entrance to the subway station in Bonn blocks the way to the former meeting place of the drug and alcohol scene at the so-called carousel. Residents of Südstadt are critical that the scene is moving more and more into their neighbourhood.
The image is familiar to many passers-by, although some don't like to see it: Especially in nice weather, many people from the so-called drug and alcohol scene linger around the underpass at Kaiserbrunnen, which leads to Poppelsdorfer Allee. Since a kiosk has opened in the former pharmacy on Prinz-Albert-Strasse, which also sells cheap beer, residents of Südstadt have observed that this clientele is increasingly settling in the entrances and front gardens of the residential buildings near the former Hotel Bristol, sometimes spending the night there and defecating.
Two residents, who do not wish to be named, have now turned to the GA and demanded that the city ensure that the wooden fence at the entrance to the subway station opposite the bus station is removed. In earlier times, the scene had predominantly been located there around a children's carousel.
Fences at the ZOB and Thomas-Mann-Strasse
"We want to remain anonymous because we fear that we could be harmed because of our criticism," says one of the two residents whose identities are known to the GA. He says they have noticed increasing aggressiveness among drug addicts and alcoholics, and many neighbours no longer dare to say anything.
"Because the city and the public utilities cordon off their own areas in the city centre, where the scene used to meet, it now comes onto our private properties," the resident said. He knows, for example, that the wooden fence at the roundabout next to the bus station was left standing at the request of the developer of the Maximilian Centre, which opened two years ago. Yet the scene there had not bothered anyone, the two residents agree.
At the SWB control centre on Thomas-Mann-Strasse, too, a fence has long prevented the drug scene from meeting there as it once did. There, too, they say, there are far fewer passers-by. On Prinz-Albert-Strasse, on the other hand, and through the already narrow underpass, there would be many more pedestrians, including numerous schoolchildren. "I know some who no longer dare to walk along there, however, because it is often very aggressive there," said the resident.
Investor demanded separation at Maximilian Center
When asked, Markus Schmitz from the municipal press office, says: The investor of the Maximilian Center had approached the city at the end of 2018 with the wish to improve the appearance and the local situation in the area of the central bus station (ZOB) and the passage to the bus station on the occasion of the then approaching opening of the Maximilian Center. For this reason, he said, a temporary separation of the area was made in the short term. "This area will be redesigned as part of the upcoming new ZOB construction. The administration is currently in exchange with the involved stakeholders about the area.“
Asked when construction will begin on the new ZOB, Schmitz replied, "The political bodies have decided on a 2023 start date for construction of the new ZOB as a target." He added that the administration is currently working out the basis for further planning in intensive consultations in order to be able to start the new construction as quickly as possible."
From the city's point of view, moreover, there is no evidence of increasing aggression and propensity to violence on the part of the drug scene at Kaiserplatz/Unterführung. Drug scene meeting places, which are frequented by many passers-by, could "in the perception, however, certainly lead to insecurity or a feeling of insecurity arising“.
Schmitz also points out that the city of Bonn has set up a discarded bus stop stand and a urinal at a greater distance from the underpass at Kaiserplatz/Poppelsdorfer Allee in the direction of the railroad tracks in order to offer an alternative place to stay.
(Original text: Lisa Inhoffen/Translation: Mareike Graepel)
