In only a handful of small towns is it said to be nicer to live than in Taufkirchen. This is the result of a rather dubious analysis of the magazine communal, which compared all German municipalities between 10,000 and 20,000 inhabitants based on 67 statistical data on the quality of life in the summer. Taufkirchen ended up in 16th place behind a whole range of other communities in the district of Munich – which Mayor Ullrich Sander (non-party) proudly mentioned at the town hall meeting.
Several of the more than 70 people present in the culture and congress center reminded the head of the town hall that there are still unsightly places in Taufkirchen. One woman complained about the “rotting shopping center in the Lindenpassage” where the shops have been deserted for years. “Everything is dirty there, I feel like I’m on a forgotten star.” The mayor replied that the Lindenpassage was now privately owned – a reference with which he had already answered the same complaint at the citizens’ meeting in the previous year. Unlike then, this time he was “optimistic that it won’t stay like this forever”. The reason: the municipality is currently planning the “Quartier am Bahnhof” west of the tracks, which also includes the Lindenpassage. “In a year we will be a good deal further,” announced Sander. “Then it will also be in the interests of the owners to do something better and more lucrative there.”
Nevertheless, it will probably be a few more years before life returns to the shopping street. The situation is different with another eyesore: the desolate entrance area of the green corridor in the Am Wald district at the height of the Lindenpassage – popularly known as the “litter box”. This area should actually be beautified in the spring for 130,000 euros, as explained by the head of the building department, Stefan Beer. This was delayed because of the pandemic, but work is now scheduled to start in March. “The litter box will become a small gardener’s place,” said Beer, referring to the planned planting, which will include raised beds and a water point.
Sander went into two new school buildings, one of which is nearing completion and the other is about to start. So – with a delay of many years – the elementary school in the forest should move into its new home on the other side of Pappelstrasse during the Christmas holidays. Your previous building will then serve as an interim quarter for the middle school, which will also be newly built – for an estimated 45 million euros, another ten million euros more than the primary school cost.
There will be an information event on the subject of energy supply
However, the debt level of the community, which had risen to 27 million euros as a result of these major projects, did not bother anyone at the citizens’ meeting. Rather, the bulk of the inquiries related to the energy crisis. At the request of a citizen, head of the public order department Fabian Sass described how the community is prepared in the event of a blackout – although District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) emphasized that his authority does not expect such a power failure this winter. Meanwhile, several citizens wanted to know why they could not connect to the local district heating network. Sander referred to the responsibility of the energy suppliers, but wants to organize an information event on the subject of energy supply because of the many inquiries. “It will take place in February,” said Sander, “and then you can ask all questions directly to the suppliers.”