I blogged a piece a few weeks ago about the Stuttgart train station renovation....a ten-year project that would go into the billions. At that point, it was starting. In the past couple of weeks since the start....it's been an almost daily routine with protesters. We aren't talking about dozens or hundreds....it's into the thousands on a daily basis.
The Stuttgart political leadership never anticipated this type of reaction to the project. Over this past weekend....at least 65k people met and protested.
There's talk of the political leadership trying to arrange for meetings this week with the head protesters and trying to get agreements. Based on several newspapers and what they write, I'd say there's virtually no agreement possible. It's almost a comical opera now....in terms of the public perceptions of the project.
Today, the police finally came forward and said all these protests since day one....are wearing out the effectiveness of the local force. They want reinforcements. Added to this mess, the local cops still have to protect folks at the local soccer games and cover the local nuclear power plant. On a average night at the soccer stadium, there's well over four hundred cops involved in that detail for five hours of work.
The Stuttgart 21 project is massive. It'll cover eighteen brand-new bridges being built, and three city train stations being erected. And then you've got well over fifty miles of track that have to be laid in newly created tunnels throughout the entire city.
If you stand back and add up man-hours on this police episode and multiply by ten years, then you've likely spent an additional five hundred million on extra cops and protection throughout the entire period. The city might end up with the largest police force of any city in Germany. The amusing side of this is that it doesn't relate to crime, and cops are being pulled from regular patrols and law enforcement, to play games with the Stuttgart 21 protesters.
I don't see much positive action on this episode. It's going to be a long ten year period.
No comments:
Post a Comment