She does not come from here and has moved to Frankfurt for work, uses mainly buses and trains thanks to the centrally located apartment and knows that the search for an apartment is a big issue in her circle of acquaintances. In this respect, Friederike Christian is a fairly representative Frankfurter. The fact that she took part in the raffle in the recent citizen survey and was drawn for the main prize is a coincidence. After all, it earned her a box seat for an event at the Waldstadion.
Bernhard Biener
Editor at the Rhein-Main-Zeitung
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The responses to the survey, on the other hand, are recorded anonymously. Of the 24,000 Frankfurters contacted, 8300 responded last year. When asked about the biggest problem, most of them mentioned expensive housing by a wide margin. It was already ahead in 2021, when the annual survey "Living in Frankfurt" was switched to a larger group of respondents. And as in the previous year, the scarce supply of housing followed in second place in 2022. But also a lack of cleanliness, lack of parking spaces, traffic in general and crime are frequently mentioned challenges.
According to Eileen O'Sullivan (Volt), head of the department responsible for statistics, the large number of participants makes it possible to break it down into 13 survey districts. In the inner city, drug addiction, homelessness and the station district are moving to the forefront of grievances. In the eastern districts it is the traffic and the construction sites, in the northern districts of Nieder-Eschbach, Nieder-Erlenbach and Harheim the poor local transport connections. By the way, a "problem" that made it to a front place there and in the eastern districts has been solved. At the time of the poll last summer, the term "Lord Mayor" meant the incumbent, Peter Feldmann (SPD), who has since been voted out of office.
O'Sullivan does not want to rule out the possibility that the recall discussion has had an impact on the reputation of the city administration, which has suffered significantly compared to 2021. It is also possible that the overload of the citizens' offices played a role. Overall, most respondents, namely 82 percent, like to live in Frankfurt. Here, too, satisfaction has declined slightly – by three points. One of the advantages of the city is that it is economically strong, cosmopolitan and interesting. But Frankfurt is not a village and is therefore perceived as noisy, dirty and hectic.
The survey results reflect why there is so much discussion about transport. It is true that satisfaction with the range of cycle paths and their condition has increased. At the same time, however, the number of parking spaces in the city centre is assessed even worse than in the previous year, as is traffic management. Public transport is a special case, although it should be borne in mind that the nine-euro ticket was valid on buses and trains for half of the survey period. Cars, buses and trains are almost on a par as the most frequently used means of transport, with bicycles coming in third place. In terms of satisfaction, local transport wins, apart from the price-performance ratio. At the same time, however, it has moved up from 23rd to eighth place in the list of problems.
The sense of security of the people of Frankfurt differs according to day and night. In the light, the world is mostly in order. When it gets dark, on the other hand, the majority of respondents no longer feel safe at bus stops, in green spaces and even in the city centre. The stations are particularly striking: 54 percent have an uneasy feeling in the dark, only 21 percent have no safety concerns. After all, the feeling of security has improved slightly by one or two points in most places compared to 2021.
The citizen survey also had a section on the Corona pandemic. The vast majority considered it important that citizens followed the prohibitions. 72 percent thought that state intervention in public life was the right thing to do, while nine percent rejected it. For 28 percent, the government requirements to contain the pandemic were exaggerated, for 49 percent not. The rest were undecided. Does the representative winner of the lottery actually find herself in the answers? In many cases, yes, Christian said. However, she was surprised that schools and kindergarten places were not mentioned more frequently in response to the open question about the problems.