Generally, Germans don't make up rules about NO-DRINKING areas. But this week, I sat and read through Wiesbaden city news, and the city council made up a NO-DRINKING area for the middle of town: the Deutsche Einheit block (the German Unity block).
In the old days (when the military was in the middle of town) this was the block where all the bus traffic in town flowed into and out of. It was 'central' to everyone's movement on mass transit.
About a decade ago....Wiesbaden decided the area was crapped out....'seedy'....and needed to be renovated. So they wrote up a new mass transit plan with this moved out and away from this block. Instead, they built up a massive indoor volleyball arena (big enough for a thousand people), and built some underground grocery/parking lot.
But oddly, what developed here....as main-town met up with the Westend (the western sector of Wiesbaden) was this poorer section of town, and this Deutsche Einheit block became this place where guys (mostly young foreign men) met up and consumed a fair amount of booze. In the mix of things, statistically....there's rarely a night that doesn't go by where some argument has started up and the cops get called. Often, the argument moves onto a fistfight, or potential use of knives, if the cops don't get there in time.
So the town council said 'enough' and has made up this block area where you can't consume booze or beer.
Fixing the problem? My guess is that the guys will discuss the matter and move their meeting place a block over, or perhaps even make it in the middle of the shopping district. And the drinking, arguments, and potential fights will continue....just in a different location.
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