RS#22 2013: Re-Thinking the City

Good news if you take the U6: as of today the line is reconnected. However users of the north-south S-Bahn line nearby will be disappointed to learn that the tunnel will be closed for most of the rest of the year due to track work. The recent referendum about de-privatizing the Berlin electricity grid was lost by just 20,000 votes. That means the city won't be forced to buy it back. But the fight to get the grid back into the hands of the people isn't over yet. Another initiative, Bürger Energie Berlin, plans to raise enough money to buy the power grid outright. If every Berlin power bill customer chipped in 100 euros, they'd have enough to purchase the grid. A Neukölln bar is set to close, but this time no one is likely to stand up and defend it. The bar in question is Freies Neukölln, whose owner filmed a famously nasty tirade against pretty much everyone who has moved to the neighbourhood in the past ten years. His bar will shut a the end of 2014 after the owner kicked him out. Few tears are expected to be shed. Munich recently voted against bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Local papers speculate that this increases the chances for Berlin to be selected to host the 2024 summer games, if it were to bid. But do the citizens of Berlin even want this expensive spectacle? Shouldn't they be given the same right as Munich, to vote democratically on the idea?