Ahhhh. After a week and a day have the internet at home again so I can recommence my 6mph observations (not quite ready to be blogging from my mac in a cafe in Friedrichshain). In the meantime I've still been running; uninterrupted through streets and parks without the need to make snapstops, and up and down the three flights of stairs I now live at the top of. The latter is definitely more exhausting. Just as well I'm entering a marathon and not one of those running up a tall building challenges.
Where I live now is yummy mummy central with approximately one cutsy wutsy café/organic bakery/kindergarten per square meter. However, they do have the best selection of footpath gardens I have seen on my runs around the area. Most of the streets are tree lined, and around the base of each tree is a bit of earth. The most common use for these are dog toilets, but some middle class citizens have taken matters into their own hands and created small gardens instead. This has not deterred some dogs however - who wouldn't choose a floral fragranced powder room over a city toilet with broken glass on the floor. But the good middle class burghers have fought back - with little signs telling the dogs (and their owners) what's what which they can stick in the garden or in the poop itself.
Given that dog fouling is one of the main issues that neighbourhood policing teams are faced with in England, surely this is one for my former big society police colleagues. I know some local activists have already started with the signs-in-turd action but I'm not sure about the gardens to go with it. They'll want to consider how much they want to exactly follow Germany's example. This is not to be confused with guerilla gardening. If you want to start up one of these little gardens, you have to get yourself down to the Bürgeramt (local council) and fill out a form.
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