Dresden. Until mid-2020 there was an alcohol consumption ban on Amalie-Dietrich-Platz in Gorbitz. Ordinary Mayor Detlef Sittel (CDU) has similar plans for an “Assi-Eck” intersection in Dresden’s Neustadt district. Now a resident is calling in a petition for a ban on back space. What is behind it and how it continues.
Why is the ban required?
A resident of Prager Strasse is fighting a petition for an alcohol ban on Wiener Platz and has collected around 140 signatures. To justify this, he wrote that he had been observing a deterioration in his living environment for years. He criticizes the fact that the benches and the area in front of the Rewe are becoming more and more of a “drinking club”.
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Especially in the late evening, there are often arguments and fights between the groups that meet there. In the morning, the residents would then have to walk through the rubbish and bottle remains, he writes in the petition. His goal: If alcohol consumption was banned on Wiener Platz, the police and the public order office would have to check there and the meeting would break up. That is the hope of the petitioner.
Is Dresden’s main train station a drug hub?
The current Dresden addiction report also admits that there are problems around the main train station. “Wiener Platz with its central location represents the entrance gate to Dresden. But at the same time, like station forecourts throughout Germany, it has also become a focus for drug trafficking and consumption,” it says.
The place is sometimes experienced as unsafe by the people of Dresden, but also tourists. With the aim of reducing the consumption of addictive substances in public spaces, a resolution was passed in the city council in June 2016 mandating measures to combat crime on Wiener Platz. In March 2018, the action plan was passed unanimously by the city council.
How has the situation developed on Wiener Platz?
“Wiener Platz and its surroundings have been the focus of the work of the municipal enforcement service for many years,” explains the city administration on request. There have been targeted raids and “uniformed presence” since 2015. “Because there are always massive disruptions in public safety due to drunkenness and intoxication-related behavior and the citizens’ feeling of security is massively impaired,” said the city.
This is another reason why Wiener Platz is still considered a “dangerous place”. In the 2018 municipal citizen survey, 47 percent of those surveyed defined train stations and Wiener Platz as places with a feeling of insecurity. However, this number has now fallen. However, the administration emphasizes: “Both from the point of view of the street workers and from the perspective of the order and security division, this development seems to be primarily due to the current situation. On this basis, a comparison with previous years is difficult.” It therefore seems “obvious” that we should remain connected to the area with “special challenges”.
This is due solely to the fact that there are problems with drugs and, in particular, alcohol in all of the places near the train station. “It is also not a realistic idea to get inner cities completely free of this problem,” said the city.
There are several reasons for this. Many alcohol sales outlets such as those in the vicinity of Wiener Platz could contribute to the “consolidation of problem areas”, as could the structural conditions, the good accessibility by buses and trains and the social function of a place.
What is the city doing about it?
The administration pays independent organizations so that street workers are out and about on Wiener Platz and contribute to addiction prevention. This is also guaranteed for at least the next two years.
From 2021 Wiener Platz will be redesigned. The Roads and Civil Engineering Department will plant trees in front of the “Prager Spitze” office building and produce asphalt surfaces in the style of Wiener Platz. There is also the “Green Arch” project, with which the open spaces are to be designed. Addiction-specific street workers for adults, street workers from youth welfare and the coordinator of addiction aid and addiction prevention are also involved in the project.
For this purpose, the police and the public order office are on the move on Wiener Platz. “It is also planned, in exchange with these actors, to relate specific findings from the ‘Safety in the station district’ project to the local situation,” said the administration. “Whether the residents’ sense of security and the specific reasons for complaint could be analyzed more precisely in the context of a small-scale survey of residents remains to be examined.”
How should Wiener Platz be changed?
Mayor Stephan Kühn (Greens) explains what is planned in addition to the tree planting. “The city planning office is currently working on an advertising and design statute for the area of Prager Straße, the new Ferdinandplatz and Wiener Platz.” The aim is to improve the design of Wiener Platz “through moderate and appropriate frameworks for advertising and special uses”.
The two previously undeveloped edges of the square on the east and west sides are also being developed. “A long-distance bus station and a bicycle parking garage will be built on the west side, and office use will be arranged above,” says Kühn. “In the east, Wiener Platz is also structurally framed by office buildings. Together with the commercial building under construction, it can be assumed that the square will be used significantly more frequently in the medium term.” The goal is a “full width revitalization” in order to upgrade Wiener Platz to the “gateway to the city”.
Is an alcohol ban planned?
“The concern of the residents is understandable and also makes sense from a preventive and addictive prevention point of view,” explains the city. From an addiction prevention perspective, however, a ban on alcohol consumption is viewed critically.
Because a ban could lead to displacement effects in the surrounding area and possibly to consumption in even more residential areas. “Drinking would happen there or in apartments. Drinking in public spaces is more due to the need for social contact, but also in these groups to the endeavor to provide mutual support. The fragmentation of the groups and the retreat into the house make access for social work more difficult “says the administration.
A ban could help to curb disorder or alcohol-related violent crimes. “However, this always depends on the specific local conditions, should be included in an overall concept of various measures and is bound by high legal hurdles due to the associated encroachments on fundamental rights in the Free State of Saxony.”
In the end, however, the city council has to decide whether to ban alcohol. This will be discussed in the Petitions Committee, since the petition is now available to the councils there.
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