Rigaer 94 and the Basic Story

 There are three elements to this riot business from yesterday in Berlin, at Rigaer Strasse 94.  

First, this is a structure that is fairly 'aged'....meaning it probably should have been renovated and updated in the 1960s, but never was.  

It is a structure of three buildings, and roughly 30 apartments.  

Normal fire safety expectations?  Well....severely lacking.  There are wall openings which aren't accredited.  The stairway system has blockages.  Electrical wiring in most cases would not pass today's expectations.  In simple terms, it's a structure that in 99-percent of cities...would be barred from renters.

Second, the general history.  After the wall came down (1990), this structure was a public housing project.  It had been cleared of renters around this time period, and various sources tend to suggest that the building was set to be either gutted and totally rebuilt (long-term plans).  With management in chaos....squatters moved in, and stayed.

Roughly four years would go by with talk between the city housing authority and the squatters....when some deal would be worked up to allow renovation to take place, and rent to be paid.  No one talks today about the amount of rent, and I seriously doubt that it was that much.

Three years would pass, and this transfer or sale of the property occurred....with the property now going to a private group (not public housing).  The group involved?  The Jewish Claims Conference (JCC).  

What can be said over the next year...is that the JCC group intended to re-make the structure (the 30 apartments) into something very different, and probably out of the reach of the present renting crowd.  Discontent arose, with the renters at that point told to move out.  They were evicted and within months....quietly re-took the building once again as squatters.

The city got involved in this dispute around 2000.  What they did....to resettle the squatters....was offer public housing in a different part of town.  You would view the deal as 'fair'....but it was not apparently going to be around Rigaer Strasse.

So what went on for roughly a decade was this stalling action between the squatters, lawyers, the owners, and the city.  It was a five-star soap opera, with the city acting more as observers than figures of authority.

Around 2014, the property sold to a London-based company, with international backers. The squatter action?  It continued on.

So around 2016, this went to the physical violent level, with police involved in various efforts to evict the property occupants.

If you went and asked about injury days for the police....there's probably over 10,000 days over the past six years for the police.  

The city officials?  They have no real plan, or motive to resolve this mess.  

So onto the third part of this story.....the structure is a 'magnet' now for revolutionary characters.....much like the Alamo was for Texans.  Just about everyone in Berlin knows of Rigaer 94, and the chaos attached to it.

People who live on this block?  They've grown to hate the squatters and their violent actions.  Driving the value of the surrounding properties down?  There is no doubt about that. 

What's likely to occur today?  I suspect that the fire safety inspection will take place....with numerous violations, and the chief of fire safety for the city....signing a document to say the building is now unsafe for human beings.  In any other German city....the structure would probably be torn down.  In Berlin, it would simply have an eviction....then squatters would arrive a day later to take over the structure again.