Tuesday 26, September
Temporarily fenced off and closed at night: Central Park to be a model for Görli
It’s decided: Görlitzer Park is to be completely fenced off and closed at night from the beginning 2024 at the latest, according to reports by the Tagespiegel. “My goal is for the fence to be put up as quickly as possible”, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner said in a recent press conference.
Wegner has justified the decision by saying: “We must now calm the situation and ensure that no criminal or violent acts take place there at night.” Drawing a parallel to another well-known city park, the mayor has compared his plan for Görli to Manhattan’s Central Park. “We are also not the first city to fence-in a park. Central Park in New York used to be considered the most unsafe park in the world, then it was fenced off and locked at night.”
Today, Central Park is no longer locked at night, and is thought of as a particularly safe public park. For Wegner, another popular green space in Berlin, Tempelhofer Feld, is a second shining example to follow. “Tempelhofer Feld is also closed at night, there is no drug-related crime there,” he told the press.
These increased security measures around Görli aren’t meant to be permanent, however. Instead, Wegner says that closing the park at night is a temporary solution that would free police up to patrol the surrounding residential areas, for example in Wrangelkiez.
