Hamburg
Overall Hamburg was my least favorite of the three cities. The city felt like it was kinda missing its wow factor. Like the Freiburg canals or the Stuttgart gardens, Hamburg didn’t really have anything that felt super unique to me. It was quite comparable to Boston with its brick architecture and harbor canals throughout the city. However Hamburg made me think a lot about the dyanmic of public transit and public spaces. The area around the Hauptbahnhof and inside of it was quite dirty and often felt somewhat unsafe especially for women. This got me thinking about the tragedy of the commons. Although there are fees to ride trains, the train station and space around it is largely a public good. Anyone can utilize the space and is therefor non-excludable. With thousands of people in, out, and around it on a daily basis, it is relatively non-rivalrous in that anyone who wants access to the space can access it. (An argument can be made that it is non rivalrous to a certain extent of spatial capacity but in reality it likely never reaches that point.) How can we keep public spaces clean and safe for people? How do you orient public planning to eliminate some of these problems? Is cleanliness and safety mutually exclusive to free public access? Can they all coexist at the same time or does the presence of one negate the other? Where do unhoused people fit into this? What happens when their only access to resources is in public spaces like train stations and other transit? Can these intersecting issues be solved solely with urban planning? Is it sustainable to not address any of the problems in public spaces? LA faces very similar issues at the intersection of unhoused people, public spaces, and safety. However it has often been the case that I have felt more safe walking around in major German cities than major US cities. What are the Germans doing better? I believe the answers lie in the way they approach urban planning and access to basic human needs like toilets and healthcare. Despite different approach methods, Hamburg showed me that Germany still has similar problems to the US; maybe we are not all that different.
