Since 7. April 2021 the city administration of Kassel dismantled all seating on Wesertorplatz and blocked off the framework of the benches with construction fences. The benches are mainly used by the homeless and the drinking scene. The seemingly absurd measure takes place within a context, in which the poor are to be driven out of the district and the district is upgraded.
A comment Christoph Hepp
Locked and dismantled bank on Wesertorplatz
The Wesertor and especially the Wesertorplatz have a bad reputation. poverty, omnipresent drinking scene despite the alcohol prohibition zone, constant police operations, garbage, Traffic noise. This reputation does not go well with the desired influx of well-off students, for which dormitories are being built in several places. The closeness to the university, which is widely celebrated, does not seem to be enough as a sales argument. The upgrading of the Wesertor residential area, also driven by real estate investors and other landlords, is making slow progress. Despite all efforts, the poor do not want to give way.
Use the local advisory board, City administration and a local car dealer already have some nasties that come up. The repertoire included the ban on alcohol and constant visits by the aggressive recreational sheriff "city police" against young people, Drinkers and the homeless. There is still a lack of penetrating classical music and anti-homeless furniture, to complete the expulsion measures against the alleged Lumpenproletariat.
Locked and dismantled bank on Wesertorplatz
Opposite the HNA, the mayor Lattrich (Green) on the subject of bank dismantling driveled without an argument, that the “behavior” and the “mood” on the pitch are not acceptable. That this supposed behavior only means the existence of poor people in public, should then apparently not be said too loudly after all.
This logic also applies to the dismantling of the benches at the same time as the new pandemic measures. In the associated local advisory board meeting, the delegates and the local councilor decided to admit it, that the idea of dismantling was passed on to the city administration by the previous local council. Mind you, initiated by an SPD member and continued by a Greens.
Instead of a social policy, that deserves its name, Drug counseling or addiction prevention becomes the place in a residential area, Anyhow, torn apart by car traffic thanks to the completely wrong transport policy, made unusable for all the losers in the system. Instead of fighting poverty, the poor are being fought. As if they had chosen their class. That in the upscale districts of the Vorderer West, Wilhelmshöhe or Brasselsberg the benches were dismantled, could not be observed by the author so far.
Locked and dismantled bank on Wesertorplatz