January this year I wrote about the active participation of citizens in the planning of the Gleisdreieck park in Berlin, an abandoned railway site with wild vegetation and historical pieces of engineering.

www.projetosurbanos.com.br/2007/01/22/berlin-gleisdreieck/

Last week the participation of the citizen´s organisation was suspended by the project managers of the park, Grün Berlin Gmbh. Matthias Bauer, of the Gleisdreieck planning workgroup (the citizen´s organisation), put is this way:

“Wind turbines are shut down during a storm, citizen participation is shut down when opinions become too diverse”.

It seems that after a decade of planning and struggling the project, like many others, suffers the paradox of community participation in the implementation phase. However, apart from the somewhat frustrating end – from now on the planning will be conducted only by private companies and the government – the community have managed a number of important alterations in the plans:

– the area planned for roads has been reduced
– more industrial heritage and wild vegetation will be maintained
– more open spaces will be maintained, instead of dense new planting
– the community vegetable gardens are now incorporated in the plans.

The community
www.berlin-gleisdreieck.de
The project manager
www.gruen-berlin.de
The competition, led by the city´s planning department
www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/aktuell/wettbewerbe/ausschreibungen/gleisdreieck/