Kaiserslautern and Jobs

 For around sixteen years, I lived in the Kaiserslautern region.  There are a number of positives and negatives about the town.  It numbers around 100k residents (if you count in the neighboring areas).  

One of the big negatives....since the early 1990s....has been the lack of jobs.  If you are around 15 years old and looking toward apprentice opportunities or local jobs....it's pretty crappy.

For well over twenty years, it's been that way.  

So last week, a thousand new jobs were laid out (probably by 2022).  Amazon is coming to K-town.

You would think it'd be all positive.  Well, there is some opposition, and that got some locals pretty hyped-up negative against the opposition. 

Reason?  

Quietly as Amazon looked at the Kaiserslautern option (never discussing it in the open).....they went to one odd feature of the city.....a major autobahn runs along side of the city, and a second connection (A-63) connects and heads north to Mainz.

The obvious place if access to the autobahn mattered?  Well....at the NW end of K-town is the Opel plant...roughly half-a-kilometer from the autobahn.  

You see, when Opel was planning their factory (well over 50 years ago)....they were purchasing a chunk of land that was way bigger than they'd ever require.  So between the factory and the autobahn, there's this space of roughly 70 acres of forest.  It's certified as industry-land....even as it sits there as a wooded area.

Some locals (wrongly) would assume it's city property and designed to be a wooded area.  

Opel, Amazon and the city quietly discussed the matter, without public attention.  Opel brought in a crew around a year ago, and cut the woods down, without saying a lot.  People who were pro-environment were a bit testy about the trimming.

So when the smoke cleared this past week....a deal had been made.  Amazon buys the former wooded area, gets immediate access to the autobahn, and will build their depot/warehouse there over the next year.

The mayor and city council?  All happy.

The environmentalists, all negative.  In their mind....the transformation of the woods should not have come out of this.  Amazon should have been forced into areas of town where no forest existed.  

People seeing this as career jobs?  No.  I would suggest that of the first 1,000 people hired....that in two years....fewer than 500 of the original 1,000 are there.  And by the fifth year, fewer than 100 of the original 1,000 are likely there. But, a job is a job......even in K-town.