Freiburg part 2

[Continued from previous post due to slow internet connection.]

Along one side of the neighborhood is a series of people living out of mobile homes along a long drive. They stay for one to three years, says Bertrand, and everyone believes they have a right to be there. To be perfectly honest, I found this strip rather unsightly.

The city is in the process of installing a tramline down the center of the neighborhood, and lots of people ride bicycles (it is Europe after all). There are several community buildings in the neighborhood with bike shops, cafes, childcare centers, and other community facilities.

From my transportation perspective, the most interesting part of the neighborhood was the parking arrangement. The city is concerned about providing sufficient parking, of course. There is no parking in front of the units. Instead, all parking is provided in a centralized parking structure. Residents pay 18,000 euros to buy a space in this garage if they have a car. Every year, the city requires every resident in every unit to sign a document stating if they have a car or not. If they have a car, they are required to buy a parking space in the garage. If they don’t have a car, they still have to pay for their potential future ownership of a car, but only 4,000 euros. The city has invested this money in some additional land at the back end of the neighborhood (near the main railroad tracks and the for-profit development, the worst land) where they may put a parking garage in the future if there is need for one. But for now, it is a park. There is a fire circle and a growing structure made out of trees (willows, I think, placed back into the ground and weaved together to form a dome; it is still filling in).

We saw children playing on most streets (they can, of course, because people don’t drive cars on these streets), bicycles left in front of buildings, and happy people chatting with their neighbors. This, I think, must be Democracy.

Bertrand also showed me the house of the architect who designed the buildings I talked about in the beginning. It is large and round, and rotates towards or away from the sun depending on the season and the temperature of the house. It has solar panels, and is intended to put more power back on the grid than it uses. Again, the house is very expensive to build; so, this is the only one.

I wonder if anyone has analyzed the cost of these energy-efficient houses vs. the on-going energy savings. I guess the real solution would be to compare the energy costs of the energy-efficient houses with the traditionally-constructed ones next to them once they are all inhabited. The only constraint here I can imagine is that the people who choose to live in energy-efficient houses may be more conscientious about their energy use than those who choose the “traditional” homes. Since this is a large purpose of the development, I trust someone else is taking care of this kind of thing. They don’t need non-German-speaking me.

Bertrand had another development he wanted to show me, and then he wanted to get some food or drink in the city center. But, you will recall, I was on the train all night. So, I insisted on being taken home (Bertrand’s home that is). I think Bertrand just generally has more energy than I do.

In any case, he took me back to Strasbourg to his lovely art deco apartment about 5 minutes from the center. I took a shower (really just a hose of warm water over a bath tub) and sat down for about 5 minutes before feeling mostly refreshed. After a light supper of salad (and amazing tomatoes, all from his CSA vegetable box), we walked around the city center. Strasbourg’s center is basically an island. The river forms a complete circle around the historic center. We encountered a light show for tourists along the way (several were going on simulatiously, kind of hokey), but the real highlight was just the city lights dancing off the river’s surface below tall, tightly-knit fairy-tale architecture.

Well, you are going to kill me (actually no, I am going to kill myself, because you don’t have to read all this but I feel obligated to write it), but that is the first of 5 fascinating days with Bertrand. I have a lot of work to do.