Offenbach: Closing public places hits the poorest

• fromFabian Scheuermann

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The anti-corona measures are tougher in Offenbach than in other cities. The restrictions hit teenagers from inner city areas particularly hard. A comment.

The space closures in Offenbach primarily affect young people and young adults who live with their families in the tightest of spaces in the north end or in the city center. Young people, some of whom don’t even have their own room, but sleep on the couch in their parents’ living room. After their favorite places have been cordoned off, they are now gathering in the space that has become narrower. Or they meet illegally in closed bars. This has happened several times since the closings began. Shutting off public spaces doesn’t exactly look like an anti-corona strategy that thinks everyone through.

Instead, it almost seems as if the city is rising above a part of its population: “City police are attacking black sheep”, was recently read in a message from the city, when a clue opened that a Shisha bar was found.

Sure: Some young people do not adhere to the existing distance rules. Sometimes a warning does not help either. If a fine then follows, it is consistent. But the areas where young people meet should remain open. Because they usually have no gardens or large apartments where they can relax. The city police, now operating 24 hours a day, could do persuasive work on the squares and persistently appeal to individual responsibility. That would be expensive. But it would not widen the social divide in Offenbach.

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