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fromFabian Scheuermann
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conclude
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For three months, two side streets on Wilhelmsplatz in Offenbach will be closed on market days. For some, the coalition’s decision in the Offenbach city parliament does not go far enough, for others that is too much.
Angry, a man in a flat cap calls after a cyclist because she has cycled over the crosswalk next to him. Next door, an SUV just squeezes past two women sipping champagne with strawberries amid the exhaust fumes. And on this Friday – a market day – there is a lot going on at Offenbacher Wilhelmsplatz. While this is actually reason to be happy, voices are increasing that demand a reduction in car traffic on the streets in the east and west of the square. Now the coalition of CDU, Greens, FDP and free voters has come to a compromise and decided to block these streets for cars and motorbikes – on market days from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., for a test for three months, excluding residents and market feeders.
Friedrich Pusch is annoyed with the decision. With his wife Birgit Berdux-Pusch, he runs a wine trade with a wine bar on Wilhelmsplatz. The two have collected signatures against the blocking. “You have to enable the pick-up business here,” says Pusch. As for a demonstration, a customer drives up in the car who wants to buy several boxes of wine and load them into the trunk. “If he can no longer pick up the boxes, it becomes problematic,” says Pusch. The same goes for Hildegard Höhl, who sells asparagus and strawberries on the market. “This morning someone got ten kilos of asparagus,” she says. What if he can no longer do this? If there is to be a lock, then after 5 p.m., when “drivers” circle the square with their sledges, Berdux-Pusch finds.
Wilhelmsplatz is considered Offenbach’s parlor
The Wilhelmsplatz, framed by old buildings, trees and restaurants, is considered Offenbach’s parlor, the only place in the city center that, despite structural change, still works well – some say: always better. No wonder changes are controversial there. For some market locks go too far for some, others not far enough. And then came Corona – and the desire for more distance. “We could have imagined more as Greens,” admitted City Councilor Edmund Flößer-Zilz in the city parliament. And the CDU parliamentary group leader Roland Walter said that his party had dealt with the issue “a little harder” than the coalition partners.
The SPD, however, called for a ban in May straighton market days – around now for a block outsideto plead the market operation. The left wanted to be blocked every day. And Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD) thinks the test is good, but considers the agreed period to be the “most absurd solution that uses the least in terms of content”. There had to be a way that people who shop a lot could continue to do so by car.
Jochen Teichmann from the Radentscheid Offenbach initiative welcomes the fact that the partial closure will also convert five car parking spaces into bicycle parking spaces. Also for cargo bikes. But he would have liked the side streets to be completely closed to through traffic.
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