Grünwald is different from other municipalities in the district of Munich in many ways. Nowhere else do so many celebrities live and so many letterbox companies have their headquarters. Nowhere else can a resident complain about the noise of the tram, because – unless the rails are being renewed – it only crosses the Munich city limits at Geiselgasteig. And nowhere else does a CSU mayor rule as autocratically with an absolute majority as Jan Neusiedl in Grünwald town hall.
The municipality is swimming in money and gives the mayor a lavish flat-rate travel allowance every month without proof. When the Greens complained about this last year, the CSU majority even added a fifty, just to annoy them. Otherwise, however, if in doubt, she does not spend the many millions that Grünwald generates from income tax and from his dumping trade tax, because otherwise something could change. In any case, the glamor that is commonly associated with the posh Munich suburb is well hidden behind the high hedges of the villas.
In the town center, on the other hand, the sadness of past decades prevails for the most part, although that should have changed long ago. Almost three years ago, at the citizens’ meeting, at the request of a visitor, it was decided that the center should be made more attractive. The municipal council had to deal with the issue and decided to have proposals from various architects presented in order to then decide on a concept. But that never happened. When the Greens cautiously inquired after two and a half years, they learned that the town hall administration had contacted a single office, but ended up discarding all ideas. The issue is not expected to come up again until the end of October. So it looks as if the matter was deliberately delayed. “The town hall radio says that the mayor would like to leave everything as it is,” said Green Party councilor Ingrid Reinhart ambiguously a few months ago.
But that attitude is part of the problem. The Greens, the independents and even the FDP have repeatedly complained about the behavior of the town hall leadership. But they have gotten used to it and ultimately let it go, even if, as in the current case, the resolutions of the municipal council are obviously being disregarded. They would have to be more vehement about the argument and contact the district office more often, even if it can certainly be frustrating to be rebuffed again and again. The blocking attitude of the CSU and its allies on the other side of the Isar in Pullach is certainly not a role model, but it shows what a minority can achieve. There, the opponents of the mayor of the Greens, Susanna Millennium, often make life unnecessarily difficult. The mayor of Grünwald, on the other hand, has it too easy. One could almost say: nowhere is the opposition at the town hall as tame and addicted to harmony as in Grünwald.