is berlin really a dirty, poor, rough city?

[WalterMitty]

with the start of the world cup, there has been some rather unflattering stories about berlin from the american media.

is it really *that bad* of  a place?  would a wiry american man, such as myself, survive the city without personal injury and with my wallet still in my pocket?

how does it compare to say cleveland?

[afleitch]

with the start of the world cup, there has been some rather unflattering stories about berlin from the american media.

They seem to nitpick when it comes to describing European cities while neglecting the state of some of their own

[Jens]

with the start of the world cup, there has been some rather unflattering stories about berlin from the american media.

is it really *that bad* of  a place?  would a wiry american man, such as myself, survive the city without personal injury and with my wallet still in my pocket?

how does it compare to say cleveland?

It is always possible to find bad places in a major city. My personal experience of Berlin is that it is a fascinating and rather progressive city where it still is possible to find alternative ways of life in the centre. I have never felt threated or afraid. What kind of stories are they running?

[Tory]

I was there a couple of months ago and I thought it was terrible. The people were unfriendly and I let them know it so there were a couple of scuffles. And it is pretty dirty, but the UK is dirty(and in a nastier way), so I won't complain about that.

[minionofmidas]

Berlin is certainly the poorest, roughest big city in Germany (though not dirtier that Hamburg, Cologne or Frankfurt - but sure as hell dirtier than Munich or Stuttgart.)
But no, you won't get injured or robbed, except maybe in a ritzy café in Mitte.

[Max]

I've been there with my class one year ago. it was amazing, but I wouldn't like to live there for a long time.

We were staying in the inner city district of Kreuzberg, where is a lot of immigration, exotic restaurants, pubs, mucic clubs etc.

For one or two weeks it is a great city.

[WalterMitty]

with the start of the world cup, there has been some rather unflattering stories about berlin from the american media.

is it really *that bad* of  a place?  would a wiry american man, such as myself, survive the city without personal injury and with my wallet still in my pocket?

how does it compare to say cleveland?

It is always possible to find bad places in a major city. My personal experience of Berlin is that it is a fascinating and rather progressive city where it still is possible to find alternative ways of life in the centre. I have never felt threated or afraid. What kind of stories are they running?

they are saying it is dirty.  that is lags behind the cities in western germany.  they say there are a lot of poors there, with unemployment of 20%.  it has also been mentioned that there are a lot of immigrants in berlin.

[Tender Branson]

with the start of the world cup, there has been some rather unflattering stories about berlin from the american media.

is it really *that bad* of  a place?  would a wiry american man, such as myself, survive the city without personal injury and with my wallet still in my pocket?

how does it compare to say cleveland?

It is always possible to find bad places in a major city. My personal experience of Berlin is that it is a fascinating and rather progressive city where it still is possible to find alternative ways of life in the centre. I have never felt threated or afraid. What kind of stories are they running?

they are saying it is dirty.  that is lags behind the cities in western germany.  they say there are a lot of poors there, with unemployment of 20%.  it has also been mentioned that there are a lot of immigrants in berlin.

I was also in Berlin last year. We went backpacking and stayed in the city fr about 4 days. We got a lot of impressions because we went through most parts of the city. There are some parts i remember especially in the former east Berlin where our second hostel was which were sprayed down by graffiti, the houses were old, there were punks with dogs on the streets and homeless people on benches and so on. The girls travelling with us were scared sometimes when we went to cinema in the evening. But there were also very clean ares and neighborhoods mostly in the western part and in the center and suburbs and shopping areas. It´s true that there are a lot of immigrants in Berlin, from all over the world, the unemployment is at some 20% and there are schools where only 5 to 10% of students are german. So there are some conflicts. I´d have to stay longer to say more about it.

[minionofmidas]

with the start of the world cup, there has been some rather unflattering stories about berlin from the american media.

is it really *that bad* of  a place?  would a wiry american man, such as myself, survive the city without personal injury and with my wallet still in my pocket?

how does it compare to say cleveland?

It is always possible to find bad places in a major city. My personal experience of Berlin is that it is a fascinating and rather progressive city where it still is possible to find alternative ways of life in the centre. I have never felt threated or afraid. What kind of stories are they running?

they are saying it is dirty.  that is lags behind the cities in western germany.  they say there are a lot of poors there, with unemployment of 20%.  it has also been mentioned that there are a lot of immigrants in berlin.

All correct (although in percentage terms, most western major cities have more immigrants than Berlin, not less.)

I'll be in Berlin thursday to monday.

[Michael Z]

I went to Berlin in December. Some of it was horrible (eg. Charlottenburg district), but other places were quite nice. I noticed that there's still a bit of a dichotomy between east and west - I felt people in the East were far more down-to-earth and easy-going than in western parts.

I generally feel that Berlin, as a city, tries too hard to be a megapolis on a par with London, Paris or New York, which means it tends to suffer from delusions of grandeur. It's still worth a visit, though. And it's certainly a cut above Cleveland.

[minionofmidas]

I went to Berlin in December. Some of it was horrible (eg. Charlottenburg district), but other places were quite nice. I noticed that there's still a bit of a dichotomy between east and west - I felt people in the East were far more down-to-earth and easy-going than in western parts.

I generally feel that Berlin, as a city, tries too hard to be a megapolis on a par with London, Paris or New York, which means it tends to suffer from delusions of grandeur. It's still worth a visit, though. And it's certainly a cut above Cleveland.

A bit? LOL! Understatement of the year.

[WalterMitty]

lewis help me out.

what us city would berlin be similar to?

[Tory]

lewis help me out.

what us city would berlin be similar to?

Detroit, circa 1986

[WalterMitty]

lewis help me out.

what us city would berlin be similar to?

Detroit, circa 1986

has detroit gotten worse since 1986?

[Tory]

lewis help me out.

what us city would berlin be similar to?

Detroit, circa 1986

has detroit gotten worse since 1986?

I have a stupid sense of humour, I know

[minionofmidas]

lewis help me out.

what us city would berlin be similar to?

I've only been to a couple of US major cities - Boston, New York, Portland, St Petersburg. I couldn't say.

But think of it this way:
Berlin is an extremely divided city - politically, not racially.
Berlin, like Philadelphia, had vast suburbs very early, and incorporated them quite early on - in 1918.
However, from 1945 to 1990 there was very very little suburban growth (for obvious reasons). This bit alone pretty much rules out any similarities to US cities.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Berlin, like Philadelphia, had vast suburbs very early, and incorporated them quite early on - in 1918.
However, from 1945 to 1990 there was very very little suburban growth (for obvious reasons). This bit alone pretty much rules out any similarities to US cities.

Sounds a bit like Bradford then; there's been some new developments since the '30's (largely big council estates in the south of the city) and a fair bit of infilling in the inner suburbs, but that's about it. Most of the city was incorporated very early as well.
Bradford is also a good candidate for being the "poorest, roughest" big city, although that does depend on what is meant by "poorest" (overall it's only rivals are Stoke and Sunderland, in terms of deprivation it (like everywhere else) trails Manchester and Liverpool). O/c that's talking about the city proper (ie; not the Met. District). It also depends what is meant by "big". It also has a certain arty undercurrent (not that most people outside the city know about that).

I wouldn't have thought a racially-divided (not as bad as was o/c), 19th century industrial city (Bradford was a small township until the 1800's) would have much more in common with Berlin though (although I could be wrong).

[JohnFKennedy]

Some of it was horrible (eg. Charlottenburg district

Quite appropriately twinned with Lewisham.

[Michael Z]

Some of it was horrible (eg. Charlottenburg district

Quite appropriately twinned with Lewisham.

lol. Very appropriate!