Persistence prevails.
The coalition in the Regensburg town hall supports the parking garage idea of the artist and city councilor Jakob Friedl.
But it's not about cars.
Regensburg - Jakob Friedl did it.
Since July, the artist, who made it to the city council in the 2020 local elections via the “Ribisl” list, has been promoting a joint project in the east of Regensburg *.
And now his persistence has paid off: The government coalition of the SPD, CSU, FDP, Free Voters and CSB has taken up his idea for a “parking garage” in the Ostpark and is now applying for the necessary funds to be approved.
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Regensburg: Friedls Parkhaus - A joint project with neighbors and residents
According to a proposal from the coalition, 180,000 euros are to be made available for this in the next budget.
The intention is to "visibly document the emphatic interest in the project for upgrading the south-east of the city in addition to the talks already started by the city administration," it says in support of the statement.
Friedl's “multi-storey car park” is not, however, about a parking space for vehicles, but rather a project that the 41-year-old would like to realize together with neighbors and residents in Regensburg's Ostpark.
The 25,000 square meter green space in the center of the barracks district, formerly the parade ground of the former Von der Tann infantry barracks, was leased by the city of Regensburg * from the Free State in the mid-1950s and rededicated as a park.
The multi-storey car park: A meeting point for the Ostpark
Since then, surveys conducted by the city among the residents of the district have shown that there has been no central meeting place. In a concept that the city presented in 2019, it is expressly stated that there is high pressure to use the Ostpark, but at the same time there is a lack of corresponding offers - a kiosk, toilets and the like.
Friedl and his colleagues from the “parking garage collective” want to change that.
This is exactly what they want to develop from the remains of the former, now ailing latrine building: a kiosk with a roof terrace, seating, an open stage and toilets.
Several architecture students and their professor Markus Emde from OTH Regensburg are on board for the project.
You have already developed a design that is to be implemented as a joint project and therefore has a comparatively low cost of 180,000 euros.
Friedl reckons that the idea would be eligible for funding and that in the end only 50,000 euros would be stuck with the city.
Artist and city councilor: Jakob Friedl has experience with such projects
Friedl already has experience with joint projects.
During his “painting fight” (instead of election campaign) in 2020, he established the Ribisl-Haus in Minoritenweg - a meeting place for artists, to paint posters or for the Regensburg offshoot of the Fridays for Future movement.
Friedl also created meeting points for free art and culture or simply for mutual exchange in various other projects, such as the “Art Buzzl” in the Burgweintinger shopping center or on the eternal Europabrunnen construction site at Ernst-Reuter-Platz.
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Jakob Friedl with supporters of his parking garage idea in Regensburg's Ostpark.
© Michael Bothner
The multi-storey car park in Ostpark is the first project in which Jakob Friedl has received such broad support from the city council. The goal: to create a lively place of identification for the park in a cost-effective and communal way. So far, however, funds have only been earmarked for cosmetic repairs in the Ostpark. This week the coalition also adopted the parking garage idea.
The bustling city council is currently proving that it can bring people together again with a “shop for adults” in Guerickestrasse 71a, right between the “Kunstpark Ost” development area and a district with less well-off residents.
The Fvfu-uüiUF eV (Association for the Promotion of Underground and Above Ground Urban Research), founded by Friedl, has rented rooms from the municipal housing subsidiary Stadtbau GmbH in order to create an open neighborhood meeting place for participation and art in the district.
Tobias Mehrbrei from the local district center supports him in this.
The members of Hackspace Binary Kitchen, together with Elektro Fritsch, provide power cabling and internet.
Friedl's current project: A "grocery store for adults"
The “shop” is to be made available free of charge as a project and experiment space for the neighborhood.
Different forms of use can be tried out together here.
For the renovation work that is still necessary, Friedl receives support from Hackspace Binary Kitchen and Elektro Fritsch, who provide power cabling and internet.
The artist Korbinian Spießl and a cook from the neighborhood are designing a kitchen area with a bar. The ceramist Jana Wolf is planning an open pottery workshop.
The Werkhof also supports the project - among other things with bicycle tools.
Two football clubs have already expressed interest in using the space.
Likewise the associations Transition Regensburg and Campus Asyl.
"From the 'adult shop' we start gardening projects with the residents of the district on their own doorstep." And this is where the necessary social structures for the participatory car park project in Ostpark are to be created.
Friedl thinks that the coalition is reacting so positively at the moment, but he also says: “We want to start the project earlier.” He hopes that the necessary funds will be placed in the supplementary budget in order to be able to implement it as early as next year kick off.
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