Lockdown Special #7: Excuse for Everything
Listen now
Description
Berlin starts counting the cost of the shutdown. Business tax revenues have plummeted by 90%. Who’s going to pay the bill? Are we going back to the dark days of “saving till it squeals”? This week’ status: Mask compliance is at about 90%. Public transport use is at 50%. Restaurants are open, but only until 10pm: they’re demanding an extra hour of trading. 400 people are in hospital with the virus. After Berlin's successful project of converting roads to temporary Spielstraßen, play streets, Dan and Maisie come up with other ways we can replace cars: dining streets, gym streets, coworking streets. Construction of the Wippe is about to begin. The monument to reunification will be a giant moving platform in front of the Stadtschloss. Opponents are using the coronavirus crisis as a new reason to try to scrap it. What’s a fair punishment for a driver who kills a cyclist? License lost forever, or just three months? We discuss a recent sentencing.
More Episodes
Published 06/02/21
The Berlin Mietendeckel experiment is finished. The city’s revolutionary attempt to freeze rental prices for five years, and reduce overpriced leases, has been killed off by Germany’s highest court. The decision has unleashed a political storm. Everyone is angry - but who will voters punish? The...
Published 06/02/21
Berlin finally has an overnight curfew - but not really: we can go out alone from 9pm to 5am. We need a negative test to go shopping - but not really: grocery and household shopping is exempt. We ask - what's the point of making rules with so many holes? Matilde says Germany's leaders are like...
Published 04/04/21