[inglor_cz]

Berlin with its Red-Red-Green government is hardly a city governed by xenophobia. OTOH, the German left is even more pro-immigration and pro-multiculturalism than an average European leftist party.

This law was probably meant against big housing corporations like Deutsches Wohnen, which bought a lot of the housing stock during previous privatizations, and so have some power on the housing market.

IMHO Berlin (just like Prague) needs to lower bureaucratic hurdles on new construction, but maybe the locals do not want that. There was a chance to turn the former Tempelhof airfield into a new neighbourhood, but a local ballot turned it down.

[rorykoehler]

Tempelhoferfeld is the best park in Berlin. Parks provide value too. They should build up instead of sprawling like the most terrible cities in the world do.

[yokaze]

> They should build up instead of sprawling like the most terrible cities in the world do

When I was in Berlin, it seemed to me people in Berlin wanted the impossible combination:

- Continue to afford to live in the city (ergo more housing in the city)

- No sprawl to keep the car traffic down (ergo still more pressure on housing in the city)

- Keeping the green spaces (so no denser housing)

- No higher buildings, or God forbid, high-risers (so no denser housing)

Or better said, you would find people, who are dead set against high-risers and would tolerate building on Tempelhofer Feld, or who are dead set against using spaces within the city (Tempelholfer Feld), but would probably tolerate higher buildings.

It seems now, higher buildings have won: https://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2...

[rorykoehler]

Yes this is a problem. Berlin is full of people who think it is their duty to be against everything.