Mayor Christian Ude:
Munich will invest one billion euro in 2005

In recent years the City of Munich, capital of Bavaria, has made tremendous progress with a number of major projects getting underway. The new Munich Airport, in joint ownership with the city, has turned into Germany’s leading turnstile for air traffic, second only to Frankfurt.

Comments

On the grounds of the former airport the new trade fair complex, Europe’s most advanced convention and congress centre was built by the city in cooperation with the Bavarian state. A new city quarter was developed south of the fairgrounds, which has received international awards for its ecological qualities. The new quarter is adjacent to a vast new landscape park where the Federal Horticultural Show, which attracts millions of visitors, is to be held this year. This event will be followed next year by the World Football Championships, to be held in the newly constructed soccer stadium Allianz Arena, in the north of the city.

By holding a referendum, city hall paved the way for this initiative by Munich’s two football clubs. In addition, Munich was awarded the new media centre for the World Championships, which will be installed in the new trade fair centre.

In the northern part of Munich, the urban planning department not only gave the green light for the architecturally bold football stadium, but also for the ensemble of high-rise buildings and the Gate to Munich which forms the archway to the city, as well as the architecturally spectacular BMW-World at the circular ring road, and the 146m tall building called Uptown Munich, the city’s highest building.

Despite financial problems, the City of Munich will invest again in 2005 in what will be by far the highest capital investments of all German cities - around one billion euro. Major investments include, apart from the extension of the subway network, the most extensive municipal programme ever of housing construction to meet the chronic housing shortage. The number of publicly financed housing units is as high as ever, but private building construction is inadequate due to a lack of financial incentives, although there is sufficient land for development and a great number of already approved building permits. New housing has gone up on the former fairgrounds and on sites formerly used by the military or railways.

Through its urban development policy and efforts to improve the infrastructure Munich city succeeded in becoming number one in foreign investments in the high-tech area, attracting many firms and businesses to the city. In Germany, Munich is the city with the highest growth potential, the best employment figures and the lowest unemployment rates.

In the ancient city centre and the traditional inner-city housing quarters, it is aimed to preserve Munich’s unmistakable residential character.  With its renowned city skyline and the rich variety of its cultural spectrum, Munich holds third position in the tourist index (number of overnight stays per 100 inhabitants) among European capital cities, after London and Prague. But major municipal projects were implemented or tackled in the old city centre as well. Total urban renewal and the extension of the Art Nouveau theatre Schauspielhaus was the biggest municipal cultural investment in all of Germany. And on the historic Jakobsplatz, a Jewish Centre is under construction. This will include a synagogue, community centre, kindergarten and school, a restaurant with kosher food and a Jewish Museum. Thus Jewishness is being preserved in the former ‘Capital of the Movement’ with this new home base in the heart of the city. 

For me, that was one of the most important projects of my term of office, which began in 1993.

In June I was elected President of the Deutschte Städtetag (Federation of German Cities). There I am devoting all my energy to strengthening municipal finances and the defence of local autonomy. In the preparatory stages of the federal elections, expected for September, I presented the key demands of the Federation of German Cities. This was addressed to the political parties by way of 10 election criteria, jointly with my predecessor and deputy in office and Mayoress of Frankfurt, Petra Roth. The principal issue concerns the struggle of the cities to preserve and modernise the main source of revenue, the business tax.

In the field of local autonomy it needs to be ensured that the City Works, which have come under private legal control during my term of office, can hold their ground in the face of competition on both the energy market and public transportation.  As Chairman of the Supervisory Board I can say that so far this has worked out extremely well.  We maintain that the water supply must remain in the hands of the city, since this has worked out exceptionally well for over a century, with the city providing optimal water quality at low cost. On municipal hospitals, a general restructuring was implemented last year to brace them for competition.

The conversion of around 14,000 municipal computers to Open-Source software, which was voted by the city council on my recommendation, has attracted international attention. This decision will lead to more competition on the software market.  Some 10 years ago a general administrative reform of the municipality was initiated with the aim of improving customer orientation and achieving a higher degree of efficiency. Due to a variety of measures (the virtual city hall on the internet, new consulting services, improved opening hours) the overall satisfaction of citizens has improved tremendously, as opinion polls show.

Finally, the political climate is of the greatest importance for me.
Back in 1996 I founded a broad social Alliance against Radicalism of the Right and Violence, accepting patronage of the Christopher Street Day many years ago, and in 2003, in view of the war in Iraq, I called upon the people of Munich to join in demonstrations for peace in cooperation with churches and trade unions.