Last year, the city of Wiesbaden (where I live.....a suburb on the outer 'ring')....decided to start something of a new trend....polling residents about how they feel.
So they did a major survey in the past two months with roughly 1,300 residents.
The key feature or outcome from this? Three-quarters of those Germans polled admitted that there are places within the city now that they feel unsafe.
I suspect (no evidence though)....if you'd done the poll back in the 1980s....less than 5-percent would have said they felt unsafe in any part of the city (now 285,000 residents).
The three areas where they felt most unsafe? 1, The train station. 2, City center (shopping district). 3, Deutsche Unity 'square'. The Unity square is where the old city bus station used to be, and they demolished that....putting up an upscale city building, a small park, and concreted area (mostly where the drunks hang out). So how does this threat business translate? Well....mobbing, sexual harassment, theft, and threats.
Does this mean that the city will do anything about this? I'm guessing that they might re-direct two or three police patrols to the Deutsche Unity area in the afternoon and early-evening hours. They might get tough on loitering folks in the train station. Beyond that, it'll be mostly talked about without much action.
The significant factor here though? A majority of women are the ones with criticism over the safety factor. For political parties worried about future city elections.....it's a problem that they might want to discuss and motivate an agenda.
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