In 1978, my first year in the Rhine River-Frankfurt region, you could have assessed the area in front of the Frankfurt train station as being a common place for fast-food joints, a few decent bars, and a block into it....the red-light district. Drugs? Not so much.
A decade later, you could walk around the same area of the train station and the one kilometer square area around it, and suggest that drug traffic had 'exploded'. Dealers were immediately upon you....just anything you could imagine....they had a guy dealing it. The subway area just in front of the station? It was becoming a mess, and best to be avoided.
By 2000, cops had come into force within the subway area, and cleaned out the mess. What they allowed from that point on....was this 2 kilometer by 2 kilometer zone....mostly to the east of the station and going north. Here, the cops barely patrolled the area.
Around five years ago, on some early morning (9 AM), I walked the area (first time in 20 years)....needles on the street...dealers active selling heroin....guys already laying there. About twenty minutes was enough to convince me to walk out and get out of the 'Bahnhof-quarter'.
I noticed in the HR news (regional public TV network)....a number of the restaurant owners in the Bahnhof-quarter finally sent in a petition....demanding that the city and the police do something. They kinda admitted that they pay taxes and expect a clean neighborhood.
So about two weeks ago, the clean-up started. Pumped-up patrols....active ID on druggies and people just lounging on the street. Dealers detained, drugs confiscated. The image...limited in nature....enough detentions to worry the dealer crowd, and show the restaurant owners that something is going on.
Long term? I highly doubt that this lasts more than a month or two. The city council certainly doesn't want to chase the dealers and druggies to some area of town and start a new fresh problem in another part of Frankfurt.
As for people who remember old Frankfurt from the 1970s/1980s? I wouldn't go with high expectations....some areas improved....some areas went down a good bit.
1 comment:
i was there in 76 - 79 . the go to place was called ' shit park ' . it was ( imo ) tolerated then for the international revenue , and likely still is . drugs cost money . germans piss me off a little bit . they have rules for everything but following the rules is probably just not going to happen .
how could any society have the most stringent dui laws in the world , yet plow down scnappes before breakfast , then a beer on the way to work , then more beer at lunchtime , and drive home without repercussions ?
oh hashish is verboten -- yet they are on the hashish payroll .. horseshit !! .
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