Frankfurt Story

In 1978, I ended up assigned to the Frankfurt area and spent two years there, compliments of the Air Force.  For me, it was like a Disneyland.  Frankfurt had just about everything that you could imagine, and you could spend an entire Saturday walking around the region.

Over the years, I've traveled a good bit and seen a lot of different cities throughout the world, but I have this special attachment to Frankfurt.  It's not a culture capital.  It doesn't have a huge inner-city park area.  There are some areas of Frankfurt that I would call as a no-go area today (Taunus Strasse near the train station for example).  But it's character and old-world charm....blended into a scenic urban zone.

Presently, the city is focused on one big goal.....getting banking jobs out of London because of BREXIT. In the minds of most movers and shakers of Frankfurt.....they think they can get 10,000 Brits who are part of the global banking sector.....to relocate into Frankfurt.

I've read the various summaries and suggested scenarios.  One scenario even went and discussed the 15,000 attached Brits, who are family members, girlfriends, mistresses, liaisons, etc.....who would move with the 10,000.....thus bringing 25,000 folks into the region.

This morning, I opened the regional news and read the new apartment news....up in northeast Frankfurt....near the Seckbach area....almost 1,850 new apartments to be built.  There are three phases to the plan, and by the end of this....there will be roughly 4,000 total apartments built.  The thing is....this will take several years.  It probably will be 2028 before the whole thing is done. One of the odd features of this development?  The autobahn connection will be underground....a passage (so to speak).  Lot of park space put into this whole thing....very "green".

As part of the deal....roughly one-third has to be affordable housing (meaning low-rent).  The rest?  I'm guessing up in the 2,000 Euro a month for rent or more.

A lot of charged up energy over the BREXIT deal?  Yes.  The Frankfurt crowd sees more business, more jobs, and more money.  If it does happen, and the 25,000 come?  I see a wide dispersal of people (from Wiesbaden, onto Mainz, and into Darmstadt).

A different city?  I think from the day that the war ended in 1945...Frankfurt was undergoing a complete new version of itself every twenty years.  We are probably at the end of version 4.0 of Frankfurt presently, and looking at the BREXIT era approaching.  Saying it'll never be the same?  You'd have to say that about every thirty days, and keep repeating it.