In its magazine GEMEINDERATSINFO, the parliamentary group Freie Wähler and FÜR Karlsruhe comments on its work and the issues of the past three months. In particular, the topics of sustainability, transport and housing, finances and the ongoing traffic jam in Karlsruhe’s citizens’ offices dominated the agenda:
Congestion in the citizens’ office
Karlsruhe is stuck in traffic! You can get this impression when you try to apply for a new ID card or passport at the citizens’ office – you can expect weeks of waiting. Even getting an appointment proves to be difficult because the time slots are fully booked and the offices prove to be inflexible and cannot offer appointments on short notice. “We do indeed have a problem,” says Mayor Dr. Albert Käuflein (CDU), speaking on the podcast of the group’s was a guest: “The problem is not a trivial one,” the mayor emphasizes the difficulty of the situation. Many employees have fallen ill with Corona – up to seven employees have been quarantined at one time. There is also a lack of office flexibility, and Corona protection measures have made it difficult to schedule appointments more frequently. In addition, there is a surge of concerns that have arisen as many people have rarely traveled in recent years and now find that IDs and passports have expired.” To ease the congestion in the citizens’ office, 17 new employees have now been hired on a temporary basis to work in the citizens’ service area and support the administration. Even among city departments, people help each other out with manpower to meet the rush.
Transport and housing
There was also a particular focus on transport and housing policy. When planning a redesign of Reinhold-Frank Street, there was a heated discussion in the local council. The plan is to make the street, which is right in the heart of the city, more bike-friendly. The parties on the left and right of the political spectrum accused each other of not doing constructive work. The parliamentary group FW|FÜR Karlsruhe introduced a constructive idea as a parliamentary group, which envisages fewer parking spaces and a new bicycle lane. Neither motorists nor citizens on bicycles should be excluded from traffic in the city center. The administration received the proposal positively and is examining its feasibility.
While a good solution has been found for Reinhold-Frank-Strasse, the situation in Südstadt has not improved in the opinion of the group. Contrary to the idea of the parliamentary group, a relaxed preservation statute, which would have saved a lot of bureaucracy for citizens, but also for the city administration, the municipal council decided to adopt a bureaucracy monster. Originally, the preservation statute was intended to prevent real estate speculators from buying up apartments in Südstadt, refurbishing them in a noble manner and subletting them for considerably more money. By the adoption of the submitted statute, however, all (!) residents are now confronted with the bureaucratic challenges as large investors: “The practical test will pass the conservation statute in its form only conditionally: Large investors will have a harder time, but so will residents,” complains Councilman Kalmbach.
Sustainability
The Group has set itself the goal of establishing a policy of sustainability. In this context, it is particularly important for Group Chairman Friedemann Kalmbach to “reconcile the economy and climate protection” and to ensure that politics does not contribute to the division of society: “The great art of today is to weigh both issues – the economy and ecology – well.”
Balancing policies are needed in Karlsruhe, especially in the area of finance. Although the city is weighed down by a large mountain of debt, the municipal council voted in favor of a costly new renovation of the Durchlach tower mountain railroad. According to the KVV, the renovation of the railroad will cost 20.9 million euros. Councillor Petra Lorenz doubts these figures: “The costs will rise even further. The final sum, according to an external report we have, will be 40 to 50 million euros – we cannot agree to such new costs because of our weak budget situation.”
The Group provides information on these and even more topics in its new Municipal Council Info, which you can find here.
