From Hildburg Bruns
Turmoil in the garden idyll. Suddenly a new parking zone with its signs surrounds the Am Stadtpark colony (Wilmersdorf). It starts with 15 minutes of parking for 75 cents. So far, tenants have been fighting in vain for an inexpensive residents’ vignette (10.20 euros/year).
From the end of the month, the parking tenants of the 113 plots on Kufsteiner Strasse will also collect money. A woman reports a harsh response from the neighboring district: “If you can’t do without your car, you just have to give up the garden. They are not considered residents.”
Tenant Werner Mertens (74) is disappointed: “We are all no longer the youngest. As an allotment gardener, you always have something to transport and are here all day – that would be a huge expense.“
Bulky garden tools are not necessarily suitable for cycling. Tenant Werner Mertens (74): “We are all no longer the youngest.” Photo: Parwez
Colony boss Detlef Sturm (77) occasionally takes the grandchildren out of the after-school care center and provides bereavement support on a voluntary basis. “My pension isn’t enough to feed the machines.” His suggestion: “We could also put our sublease agreement behind the windshield so that the public order office sees us as residents.”
CDU MP Stefanie Bung (45): “A solution must be found quickly here. It cannot be the case that allotment gardeners can no longer reach their plots. They are not short-term parkers, but rather spend many hours there.“
City councilor Oliver Schruoffeneger (61, Greens) points out that the Senate is responsible for exceptions and that there are independent parking spaces in most colonies. But practice shows that this is rather the exception. It is often undesirable so as not to further compact the soil.
New parking zones make visits to their plots more expensive for allotment gardeners (from left): Werner Mertens (74), Angelika Dau (73), Evelin Haack (79). Detlef Sturm and his wife Brigitte (75) Photo: Parwez
Since even more zones will be expanded in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district in the future, tenants of the Hohenzollerndamm colony will also be affected. Tenant Evelin Haack (79): “I hope it will take a while.”
Do allotment gardeners really always have to pay for metal in a park zone? Answer from the Transport Senate: “There is an exceptional approval practice that has been tried and tested for years. People with limited mobility who cannot use public transport can be exempted. Transporting crops, soil and leaves warrants an exemption twice a year for one month each.“