A rant about life in Frankfurt

I use the word scum with careful consideration--I think it is an awful word--yet in my opininion describes what is on the streets here in Frankfurt

What kind of a society wont let you watch a dVd after 9pm at a suitable volume.

Tuts at you washing your car
on a sunday.

Screams at you for daring to cross the rd without a green man--Even if there is not a car in sight...

And a whole host of other rules that slow life

YET--STICK A NEEDLE IN YOUR FOOT NO PROBLEM
PROSTITUTES GET IT ON

Yesterday having a sandwich some old hag of a lady wips out a needle in the phone box across the and injests herself

Today i left the car at home---coming out of the Hautbanhoff you had to step over the junkies in the stairs injexting , sniffing and god knows what

Children passing and the Germans looking the other way

2 jakes screaming at each other in the station0--

What is wrong here?
Why is this allowed to go on?

We were talking about it here the other day too - how in the last few months the situation at the Hauptbahnhof has taken a drastic turn for the worse. I remember it being worse in 1994 when I was here for a while, but it seemed that they had cleaned it up. Apparently not. Where do these people come from? Some look like characters out of Zombies Dawn of the Dead.

I steer well clear - which is hard as I work just round the corner - and run away to the hills every night.

May be they'll drive them all out in time for the World Cup. Can't imagine some staggering drugged-up freak is the welcome Franz Beckenbauer has in mind when the world descends on Germany next summer.

Welcome to Frankfurt!

We hope you have a nice stay!

NOT!

Can you imagine when the WC is on bizzarre

Its weird because they are not threatening just horrible

I am amazed that the locals stand for it

Why dont they clean this town up

I remember when I first came to Frankfurt I was shocked by it. My first day there and was coming out from the S-Bahn and I see 2 junkies sitting in the middle of the stairs. They had a beer can upside down with I presume heroin in the round bit at the bottom. They started filling the needle and sticking it into their strapped arm. I remember looking back at this and seeing 2 kids about 10 or 11 standing watching it. Couldn't believe it. Same week, was having lunch and see some junkies shooting up between 2 parked cars outside where I was eating. A polizei van came along and I remember thinking this should be good. Polizie van slowed down and one of the junkies stood up and waved them on... they drove off
I talked to a few people who had lived in Frankfurt all their lives about this. They said that the junkies used to hang around that area in a small park with a Goethe statue on the front, don't know the name. The Polizie tried to clean up the area but in doing so they spread the problem all around the city. So now they just let them at it in in this area so as to contain it!!

Then go back to your make-believe cities ... !!

Having lived in real-slums, having lived in every corner of this beautiful world, all I can say about Frankfurt, is that I love it!!!

Erm, Erm ... for those of you who tend to hide behind your white picket fence, Mercer studies rated FRANKFURT as the 5th best city of live in. Sure Frankfurt has its problems, but come on, what city doesn't?

Ps. Tommy, please enlighten me ... what perfect city are you from?

Willy,

no need to be defensive all cities have problems but to have these junkies(all big cities have them) on display and shooting up in public.is in my opinion disgusting-Children shouldnt have to witness such things-I am from Edinburgh which has well publicised problems highlighted in the 90's by trainspotting and was Europes aids capital--There was help for these people which went some way to helping the problem..
Tommy

I have only been to Frankfurt a couple of times, and have certainly been shocked by what I saw. It is not something that I would like my kids to witness.

But it is true that every major town will have areas like this .. it is perhaps unfortunate in Frankfurt that it is where it is highly visible.

In Köln they have just completely re-done the steps between the Bahnhof and the Dom. One of the positive benefits is that all the ne'er-do-wells don't have little nooks and crannies where they can park their dogs (why do they all have dogs???), beg with their McDonalds cups, smoke their joints, p**s all over the place, and generally make a bloody nuisance of themselves.

I fully agree with you Tommy, that yes, Frankfurt does indeed need to clean up its drug problem ... mind you, so do ALL major cities! Drug abuse is not only prevalent on the streets of Frankfurt, sadly it's everywhere, in every corner, even in the rural cities of my home, Canada.

Sadly, to clean up the streets and sweep it under the rug, back in the gutters, per se, does nothing for the problem. The problem of drug abuse lies deep in German society – which is unstable and in need of recovery. Perhaps with the new government, things will get better.

Drugs aside, Frankfurt is a very very beautiful city to live in. Safe, yes!

I have to say I love Frankfurt. All cities have their ugly side. Frankfurt actually has very little in the way of ugliness if you compare it with London or other places. I agree the Hauptbahnhof is bad. I have the misfortune to cycle past it once a week on the way to and from an evening class. All manner of nutcases, druggies, and general lowlife hang out in and around the station.

But even that is not as bad as the Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg used to be. Frankfurt is mild compared to that.

I agree though that kind of lowlife crowd shouldnt be the first thing you meet when you step out of the main doors of the station and out onto the city streets. So they need to do some kind of clearing up! Otherwise it lowers the tone - and has an adverse effect on real estate values as well as detracting from the upbeat corporate business image the council is striving to meet :-))

Ah Rick_de, a guy of my own heart ... you're right Frankfurt is mild, even compared with my beautiful Vancouver. :$

Given than Frankfurt boasts the second largest red-light district, besides Amsterdam, in terms of crime & sleaze et al, yep ... it's MILD, very MILD!!

I remember my first couple of months in Frankfurt, as I used to take a language course on Kaiserstrasse. I passed the Commerzbank, (Kaiserstrasse) one afternoon and their was a guy doing a massive dump at the entrance of the bank. Could have been a disgruntled customer, I don't know! needless to say my appetite vanished.

Anyway, during one of my many walks around that area, I stumbled on "Cafe Fix", an aptly named cafe situated down a side street from Kaiserstrasse. There was about 8-10 people outside lying half conscious with needles poking from their bodies. Certainly an eye opener. However, I also think its a good thing if they have a certain place to go to, to either shoot or take whatever else. I suppose the others should use it!

As for other cities having problems, sure this is certainly true, but over the last two years of being here, I can see the Hauptbahnhof getting more crowded with drunks, con merchants and junkies.

Having just come back from lunch in Munchener str I stumbled across a few junkies and indeed they were smoking crack and downing bottled beers one of the women was slumped across another bloke who was spralwed across the pavement-obviously on cloud 9-needless to say the police were driving by slowed down to where they were sitting and just loked at them...and drove off again.

All this at 12:40am.

I had to cross to the other side because of the stench coming from them!!

QUOTE: I remember my first couple of months in Frankfurt, as I used to take a language course on Kaiserstrasse. I passed the Commerzbank, (Kaiserstrasse) one afternoon and their was a guy doing a massive dump at the entrance of the bank. Could have been a disgruntled customer, I don't know! needless to say my appetite vanished.

LOL! Gives new meaning to the term "making a deposit".

I worked at one of the big banks HQs in the Kaiserstrasse area. It always struck me as amusing how the pinstriped mob had to step over junkies lying on the pavement and even in the entrances to their office doorways to get to work!

You could say though all the clientele in that area are junkies - sex junkies, drug junkies and finance junkies! Its all kind of karma or is that feng shui related...

Have they installed the video cameras yet? I heard they were putting them everywhere in that area apart from the street where all the Eros Centers are. The owners were concerned it might put off the customers.

QUOTE I use the word scum with careful consideration--I think it is an awful word--yet in my opininion describes what is on the streets here in Frankfurt

What kind of a society wont let you watch a dVd after 9pm at a suitable volume.

Tuts at you washing your car
on a sunday.

Screams at you for daring to cross the rd without a green man--Even if there is not a car in sight...

And a whole host of other rules that slow life

What kind of society?

German society!!!

Sounds though like you`re just having a general whinge at all things, or at least, some things, german. Or maybe having a bit of a"bad hair day"?!?

A german moving to the UK could just as easily have a big whinge about lots of maddening things about life in England - and especially London, which are offputting, unpleasant, crazy or defy rhyme and reason. I myself (even as a brit) could think of quite a few to start the ball rolling.

QUOTE 2 jakes screaming at each other in the station0--

What is wrong here?
Why is this allowed to go on?

What are "jakes"?!?

I think you`ll find though there are looneys in all big cities. There were plenty at large in Hamburg and Berlin both cities I have also lived in. Not to mention London..

Munich? its not called Toytown for nothing. The police drove (virtually) all the junkies and beggers out of town. They probably all ended up in Frankfurt

A begger in Munich? Now that's an oxymoron!!

I grew up in London and have never seen the things you see here on the streets. It might go on in London behind closed doors, but that's OK.
There's plenty of stuff that goes on in my own house behind the closed door that I wouldn't want the commuters at the station to see.

i dont like to see beggers and junkies on the sreets .
but please try and remember that these people are still people and maybe theyve not had so much luck in life as you.
its a very easy trap to fall into and it can happen to anyone (even you)

Beggars maybe, but junkies don't fall into a trap. They choose to take drugs. Or at least they chose to and then went and got addicted.

And the prize for Friday's most narrow-minded comment goes to ... LUKE!

Clap, clap … congratulations!

Sorry Luke, however, a high percentage of “junkies� do indeed come from broken homes, and drugs and alcohol are their only means for escape and/or to cope. People do not chose unfortunate circumstances, sometimes by the turn of fate, they are merely born into it.

Shucks - good thing you didn't inhale in college, or perhaps, just perhaps I'd be the one stepping over you at the train station.

with Luke on that .. it is their choice. Even if they have problems and become addicted to stuff, that is no reason to stay addicted.

And before I get flamed, I have recovered from alcoholism (long time ago) and nearly 3 years ago at last managed to give up smoking. May not be the most exotic of drugs (meaning not as cool or hip as cocaine or ecstacy), but still damn hard to get off.

Any one of them could give up .. IF THEY REALLY WANTED TO!!! Trouble is that the vast majority don't want to even try and give up ... scum describes them rather well.

I read somewhere that the shopkeepers of the Kaiserstrasse and neighbouring side streets were complaining that they get too little passing trade considering the vast numbers of commuters who pass by each day (on their way to and from the hills).

Reason being they said, is that most of the commuters walk through the district between station and office with the "Scheukappen" (horse blinkers) on!

Well Luke...you will just have to share that prize with me then because I totally agree with you there.


What a load of B@ll@cks !!! You dont really believe that...or do you ???

Oh yes they do... not all of them...but quite a few do...and that´s a fact which I can back up no problem.


Fate has sometimes something to do with it but only because it was fate that put them in contact with drugs however it was by own choice that they took it.
Born into it ??? I dont think so...we are all masters of our own lives...nobody makes you take drugs...however a weak mind does constribiute to it.

Not nice!! Please send me your photo so I can label you ...

Cause ya know what, I AM PERFECT!!!

QUOTE People do not chose unfortunate circumstances, sometimes by the turn of fate, they are merely born into it.

Some of us are born princes and others are born as beggars???

Even if you are "born a begger" - which very few people in northern Europe are, maybe in eg India yes - then you might still have the drive to better yourself - "rags to riches""??

And also riches to rags.. also possible.

@willy: just print of my profile page for your dartboard

I've already done it - he makes a surprisingly good target

LMAO - oh yes, it really does ... make a fine bullseye!!

What a load of B@ll@cks !!! You dont really believe that...or do you ???

LMAO Each to their own, I might add!!

- @ maaph - I've seen what you drink now - I wish I could have seen what you drank when you were an alcoholic???

PS - congratulations for giving up the evil weed - it's a very difficult thing to do & again you have to really want to

@willy

Grow up and wake up.
If you start to voice your opinion then I suggest that you are also be prepared to have people disagree with you.


You do that quite a lot...must be a lot there to laugh off.

@Vloid: now I just get rat-arsed in a controlled fashion

But it is the demonstration of the cure that I can go into a pub and drink without worries. Same as smoking cigars :$

and the dartplayers .. will you show me your double tops?

I fully support ones opinion - this is what makes on-line conversation, just so, well intriguing!! Each to their own, so to speak!!

But Mickey, I do really appreciate and thank you for telling me to "grow up" though, such a mature comment indeed!

Life on the farm getting to you?

I blame it on the crack!

Life on the Farm...well with a naive comment like yours it´s not me that lives on a farm.

Junkies are ain´t a laughing matter...unless you are somebody that isn´t educated enough to understand it. They dont just wreck their lives but also the lives of family members.

Maybe this is getting too close to home (my Farm) and I should really keep my mouth shut before I regret it.

Im getting all hot here thinking of willys crack ...

Ha ha ... Forget about the junkies and those pesky beggers ... all we need is a little crack!!

On that note ...

Wow, I get swamped at work and dissapear for a few days and this is the madness I come back to.

I'm sure that Frankfurt is a lovely city, I have only spent a few hours there. I know that Vancouver is wonderful (I believe it was first in the list of most livable cities that came out a few days ago).

I also know that vast swathes of Vancouver (pretty much everything directly east of downtown) are basically a no go area because there are so many junkies. This is a shame. I got stuck in a youth hostel there once (the downtown one lost my reservation) and literally had to climb over the junkies to get through the door way.

Some cities have taken a particularly permissive attitude to drug use (as well as other 'petty' crimes like graffiti and dog shit on the sidewalk). Berlin certainly has. I don't what can be done to stop junkies (I suspect nothing), but I think it is sad when society gives up and cedes part of their cities away. On the other hand, a few years back the police chief in Vancouver noted that every time a major drug bust was made every convienience store in town got robbed because of the effect on the street price. Maybe you can't win.

Addicts have made a lifestyle choice. That choice may have been influenced by all sorts of unfortunate factors, but the fact remains that nobody forced them to stick a needle in their arm. I believe they have a right to make that choice, but it is the rest of society that suffers the consequences. I don't know what the police can do, but I would at least like to see them limit the effects on the rest of society that has to bear the costs of these people's choice.

Well said Ami_in_Berlin :$

I am just waiting for the catfight between Mickey and Willy (now that I have realised that they are both female with male names) - I am sure I could sell a load of tickets.

From Radio 1's site.
"Homelessness can affect anyone. It can hit families and single people alike, young or old, men or women. People lose their homes for a wide range of reasons: falling out with their family, suffering from domestic violence or being evicted by their landlord to name but a few. In 2000, Shelter estimates that over 410,000 people were found to be homeless by local authorities in England alone."

Is it a surprise that some of these people turn to drugs (when they have no hope for the future left)?

This is probably going to be incredibly unclear, but I seem to remember reading about a year ago that the number of homeless in London had been remarkably cut down to a couple dozen. This was done by offering decent shelters and by having people literally go out an pick people off the streets. People couldn't be forced into a shelter, but they would be pestered enough that most eventually gave in, and then with better shelter space they were more willing to stay. Once people were then better accounted for more intensive addiction programs and job searches could begin.

Am I only imagining this, or can anyone else confirm it?

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3084301

Here's a more recent article on the beeb:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4237626.stm

"There are now an estimated 459 rough sleepers, according to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister figures. This is a fall of 75% from 1,850 since 1998."

Figures are from England...and from the government. Realistic? And how were these figures compiled? Did they walk around ALL the streets of a major city?

Yes, at least that is how non-profit groups in the US do it.

Latest betting odds

Mickey 8/11 - Willy 6/4 Draw 2/1

A fiver on Mickey to win in 8 rounds

Loads of people have hard lives, most just get on with it and try to do the best they can. Some just scrounge and blame everyone else but themselves.

I saw a documentary on BBC2 the other day (I think it was called "Real Lives") where they followed a drug addict. She came out of prison (10 months of a 2 year sentnce) apparently clean. But rather than go to see here 6 year-old son, she went straight to a friend who was a crack dealer. The next day she visited her son, stayed with him for an hour then had to go back to her flat because she was tagged and couldn't break her curfew. Within two weeks she was back on drugs and had broken her curfew and gone on the run.

These are people who have the ability to make the sensible decision and refuse to, time and time again And I'm supposed to stump up the money to keep them idle (by way of taxes) and then I'm supposed to feel sorry for them because they're victims of society. Quite frankly it makes me feel good to see them shivering with cold lying in the gutter, at least I know I'm not paying for them to lounge around in some soup kitchen or hotel at my expense.

Jean-Pierre

a little humour never hurt!

During the summer I was back home and the Toronto Star ran several articles on the problems of the hidden homelessness. In one particular situation one middle class family wound up in a shelter for several months, that in spite of having a full time job. He lost his $20 an hour job, got a new one at $10 an hour and then the wife got sick. After a while they couldn't afford the 1300 a month rent and got kicked out. After living in the shelter for a month they were able to find more reasonable accommodations. they told the kids they were on holidays to explain why they weren't at home.

I read somewhere that most families are all but 1 or 2 pay cheques away from being homeless.

from the Economist


I asked my Bro in Law about that, if I should I give some spare change to them and he said he never gives cash, only coupons for lunch (and most refuse it). He runs an outreach for the homeless in Kitchener Waterloo. As said above most of it is for drugs or booze.

Sometimes I give money to musicians