Frankfurt Nieder-Erlenbach: More children, but no more daycare centers?
In Frankfurt Nieder-Erlenbach, the city does not rush new buildings: after 50 years there is now a new sports hall. When will the required daycare come?
Frankfurt – In a series we look back on the year in the 16 local councils. What was the topic that moved and preoccupied the district in recent months? The local advisory board 15 of the Nieder-Eschbach district has already been highlighted, today it is about the local advisory board 13 of the following district Nieder-Erlenbach:
The babbling brook, lots of green and a wonderful historical town center. The northernmost district of Frankfurt is pure idyll. Especially for families. Those who live here like to live here. You know each other in the rural place where almost 5000 people live. Harmony is important to the Nieder-Erlenbachers and the mirrors are also broader in the local advisory board 13. Usually one agrees. Especially when it comes to the well-being of children. The child representative and CDU parliamentary group leader Ingrid Reitzammer fights like a lion for daycare and playgrounds. What moves everyone: What good are two new development areas if there are no additional daycare places and only dilapidated playgrounds?
Frankfurt: Nieder-Erlenbach 500,000 euros for a playground
When Reitzammer takes a look at the playground “An den Bergen”, you almost burst your neck. The large climbing frame was cordoned off in 2019, and the playground should be included in the new construction program in 2020. But Die Stadt shrugs its shoulders, saying that a new system would cost 500,000 euros and hardly act. The little ones are only allowed to play again on the large meadow at the playground, which the office quickly declared instead of a Bolzwiese to be a flower meadow. The local council also had to fight for it. “If the swings, slides and climbing frames are missing, you can’t take away the football field from the children,” they said.
At the other two playgrounds, it is hardly any different. Some devices have been patched up poorly, others are completely missing due to lack of money. Citizens get involved and consider investing themselves. The local advisory council budget is nowhere near enough, with around 2500 euros per year. Nobody in the local advisory board 13 really wants to believe in the dying costs of half a million euros. “We keep fighting. Our children need space to climb, run around and play and the city is obliged to take care of that, ”says Mayor Yannik Schwander (CDU).
New building area in Frankfurt Nieder-Erlenbach: 80 new children, but no new daycare center
On top of that. A day-care center had been promised for the new development area Westrand, and a building area was available for it. That was the case in 2017 and 2018. Families are moving in, there is no day care center there. Instead, a daycare center is to be built for the Am Riedsteg development area. When is unclear. “80 children are now moving to the new development area on the western edge. 20 of them need a place on May 1st and we don’t have any, ”said Reitzammer. An intergroup motion was unanimously resolved and the magistrate asked to request the city education authority to bring forward the plan for a four-room new building in the new development area.
“Before buying their property, people were promised a daycare center. However, the city education authority calls the Mühleninsel daycare center, which was also brought forward and has been fully occupied since 2013, as a new building, ”the local advisory board knows. A shortage of childcare places in the next year is inevitable. A facility “Südlich am Riedsteg” is planned anyway, so that quick construction on the free 2000 square meter site in the Westrand construction area should not be a problem in the opinion of the local advisory board. The parliamentary groups will not give up and are submitting motion after motion in order to finally get the city moving.
New buildings in Frankfurt Nieder-Erlenbach: After 50 years, finally a new sports hall
The fact that the local advisory board in Nieder-Erlenbach is mostly unanimous and will not allow itself to be dissuaded from its goals is also shown by the struggle for a sports hall, which will last almost 50 years. It should now actually be built in the construction area south of the Riedsteg. The same applies to the cycle path between Nieder-Erlenbach and Nieder-Eschbach. The struggle lasted 30 years. Construction is now to begin. The parliamentary groups are also wrestling over the old mourning hall in the old cemetery. The city would like to demolish the historic building for financial reasons.
The local council members are not lacking in suggestions and bite. In 2021 they dealt with 135 templates in the large hall of the community center, which has now been renamed by Saalbau to “Arilbachsaal”. That was the name of Nieder-Erlenbach in the last mention received in 779. The work of the local council for its citizens remains strong and creative. He has managed that there are on-call buses in town. Schwander had already organized a non-bureaucratic transport service for schoolchildren during the pandemic.
Now it’s about the noise barriers. Plants should have a uniform appearance. The local advisory board members also agree on the appearance of the livable district. Tenor: Nieder-Erlenbach was beautiful, is beautiful and it should stay that way. (Sabine Schramek)