Frankfurt Story

On the north side of the Rhine River in Frankfurt, about a kilometer from the train station, is the Opernplatz....a rather large open area that borders with the city opera house. 

Depending on how you view it, it's an area of about one-hundred meters by two-hundred meters, and then a big significant city park behind that (about the same size).

From what I can remember in the 1970s...it wasn't exactly a drawing-card for people to go and hang out.....sipping beer or apple wine.

Over the past decade or two....it has become this major social 'zone' from spring to early fall.  It's mostly young people (ages 15 to 30)....hanging out, and consuming street food and beer.

So year by year, this has grown, and it's become this nightmare on the morning clean-up detail of Frankfurt.  As tidy as Germans can be....this group, and this particular 'zone' of Frankfurt has turned into a mess.

Over the past month, the city council folks and mayor have been discussing the matter.  It's now a topic that has moved up to be openly discussed as a city 'problem'. 

The solution?  I noticed this morning....lotta hype suddenly coming up....the mayor all peppy and happy....the promise of 400 new and extra garbage cans will be placed in the 'zone'.

So you can sit there and imagine this area....roughly the size of three football fields, with four-hundred garbage cans.  I'm guessing the spacing to be about every 15 feet in each direction.  To be there permanently?  That's not clear.  I'm guessing some city team will deliver the cans on Friday afternoon, clear them on Saturday morning, repeat this on Sunday morning, and then take the cans away for the next five days. 

Finally resolving everything?  Well....NO.  You see there was a second problem. 

When you go and consume a lot of beer.....you tend to have the urge to pee (maybe once, maybe twice in a single evening).  So the same observant folks who got hyper about the trash on the ground....are disturbed about the pee smell and situation on the Opernplatz area. 

No, there are no public toilets anywhere near this area.  Nor do I think that the city council wants to get into the public toilet business.

You could resolve this with the Amsterdam 'trick' where you have open toilets in public, but that's not the classy way that Germans like to handle a pee-situation.

So if you happen to be around mid-town Frankfurt in the summer....on a Saturday evening....you can gather with the 3,000 other folks at the Opera House area...consuming some beer, and just hanging out.  Just make sure you use the garbage cans correctly.