Munich is a car city. The residential areas are full of parked cars. But the city wants to rethink and is testing an alternative on one street: turf instead of tar, raised beds instead of parking spaces. The result: a bitter fight.
The rethinking has to start somewhere, as the residents of Kolumbusstraße in Munich agree. The principle, which has been in force for decades, of using public space in large cities primarily as a place to park cars is no longer up to date, and most people here in the Au district would probably agree with that. But on her street? The answer of some is very loud and clear: for heaven’s sake, no!
What happened here that residents are filming families with children on the street as evidence of noise pollution? That they see ball games as a provocation, used to upset them, the neighbors. There are messenger service groups where they exchange “video evidence”. Anger is shared and mutually reinforced.
300 meters that cause controversy: the model project on Kolumbusstraße.
“Resistance is normal”
Resistance is normal with such projects, says Oliver May-Beckmann. However, the head of the “Munich cluster for the future of mobility in metropolitan regions – MCube” adds that the intensity surprised him to this extent. After all, the changes in Kolumbusstrasse are not permanent.
The road is part of a scientific research project. From June to the end of October, 40 parking spaces were covered with turf and a sandpit over a distance of 300 meters, raised beds were laid out, seating was set up, and part of the road was closed. So far, no one has stayed here longer than necessary, says May-Beckmann, now things are different.
Modern new-build districts have long been planned in this way. Inside a restricted traffic area, benches, green spaces. “Quality of stay” is what the MCube director calls it, created for the residents. How this modern design can be implemented in “existing quarters” is being researched in Kolumbusstraße.
Local residents feel left out
Many on Kolumbusstraße think that’s great. But not a part. More than 1,000 residents live here, and opponents say they have collected 150 signatures against the project. In their ears, the new “quality of stay” means above all noise.
The project managers deliberately did not “set the agenda” for the space in the street, as May-Beckmann says, but left it up to the residents how they deal with the sandpit, the “beach”, for example. In practice, it is now used as a children’s playground.
They felt like guinea pigs here, says resident Wilhelm Kussmaul. Unasked part of an experiment that, if he has his way, should be stopped immediately. Another, Claudia Fendt, asks: “What would you say if, under the guise of climate change, you put a forty-meter sandbox with screaming and yelling children a meter in front of your living room?”
residents complain
A torrent of different arguments: the right to a car, fear of gentrification if it gets nicer here, being passed over. For the group of opponents, one thing is certain: the project has to go. A lawsuit has been filed.
In fact, the district committee of Au-Haidhausen approved the project in Kolumbusstraße, it is part of a larger experiment in Munich to find out how various interventions can change the mobility of a city. Whether the lawn has cooled the street, whether the noise has increased and how the project was accepted is evaluated at the end, says May-Beckmann. At the end of October, the Kolumbusstrasse is to be restored to its previous condition.
More quality of stay or more noise? Local residents have different opinions.
temporary Project, permanent rift?
Will the neighborhood then return to its original state? The videos are filmed, the groups founded. Rumors are circulating. The democratic legitimacy of the experiment is being questioned and many do not believe it will end in October.
In the meantime, the 300 meter temporary traffic reversal in Kolumbusstraße is also occupying Munich city politicians. The CSU wants a citizens’ survey, the SPD mayor Dieter Reiter criticizes the “ideological” parking lot deletion. And the AfD is said to have already distributed notes and business cards in Kolumbusstraße. A few weeks before the end of the experiment there is a state election in Bavaria.
The sun will come out on Wednesday afternoon after it had rained for days in Munich. A resident stands in Kolumbusstrasse and takes photos. As a reminder when the parking lots come back, he says. He likes the green in front of the door.
He has no sympathy for those who prefer to park their car here. For those who are plagued by noise, it’s more likely, but he has an idea: maybe you should use the temporarily green room to get to know each other. Because of people you know, he believes “the noise doesn’t bother you that much either”. There’s still a little time left before the parking lots come back.