Dear Editors,
I read your article "Neustadt is growing – but where to?" of 12 March about urban planning with great interest. In it you describe very precisely how many new flats are to be built in the coming years, and I agree with you that the city urgently needs affordable housing. As a long-standing resident of the North Quarter, however, I would like to add one point that is mentioned only in passing in your article: in our district there is clearly a lack of green spaces.
Where there used to be a small park with old chestnut trees, a multi-storey car park was built last year. The playground at the corner of Bergstraße has given way to an underground garage, and the meadow behind the school has since been built over with three blocks of flats. Children hardly have any space left to play, older people no longer find a bench in the shade, and on hot summer days the district heats up noticeably more than ten years ago. That is not just my impression: the city itself has established in its climate report that the North Quarter is among the most densely built-up areas.
I understand that flats have to be built. But living means more than four walls. Anyone who wants to bring families into the city must also offer them places where they can spend time without consuming anything. In other cities this has long been recognised: there, with every new building project, a fixed share of the area is reserved for green space.
I therefore call on the city to think more about the residents in the next project and to change the development plan before the last open space has disappeared. Specifically, I propose that at least a fifth of every plot remains unbuilt and that residents are consulted during planning. Perhaps your newspaper will take up the topic again – it affects not only our district.
Yours sincerely
Karin Schmidt, Neustadt
