There's an interesting piece from WELT this weekend which talks over Hamburg, the St. Georg area part of town, and the main train station district.
I guess the two terms used for the bulk of the story....the amount of drug-use, and the impoverishment of the neighborhood.
Having been there in the past five years, I'd say everything west/north of the train station is mostly 'safe' and appears non-druggish in nature. If you go east from the train station (into the St Georg area), it's a zone of about 600 by 600 meters that I'd recommend to avoid (day or night), unless you were in need of drugs.
What really happened here? I think if you go back to the 1990s....there was a drug issue, and the city council just chose to look the other way, and advise the police to let it be a free-range zone.
Probably a decade ago....locals in that 'zone' probably tried to say something, and the cops responded with another occasional 'bust' to make it appear they were listening. Beyond that....there was no permanent view of fixing anything.
I'd even go and say that in dozen-odd German metro-cities...it's the norm now.
This impoverishment talk? This might be new and a counter-angle to the problem. The drug crowd has prioritized their life standards.....the daily 'hit' is priority number one, then enough water/food to sustain themselves (bare minimum for calories, you won't see any chunky or fat drugged-up folks), and then shelter and sanitation.
If you asked me if they were hydrating to 3.5 to 4 liters (for guys) of water per day? I'd laugh and probably suggest most are marginally at the 3 liter level, and half-way to dehydrating themselves daily. Part of this blame is simply the act of allocating a Euro or two each day for cheap bottled water. On a really hot day, spending an extra Euro on another bottle of liquid is a harsh reality.
The fact that WELT talks about this? It's probably a sign that the general public is fed up and wants some type of solution 'dreamed-up'.
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