[sharperguy]

The article claims Berlin is one of the best places for public swimming and yet whenever I want to go it's literally impossible for me to find one that's open at a time I can go (i work a normal 40 hour week). I haven't been swimming in years because the situation is just useless.

[nicbou]

It feels like everything in Berlin requires you to queue or fight for an appointment slot, including the pools. Every public service without fail is a battle. It's tiring.

We just go to the lakes. It's a lovely bicycle ride.

[danielbln]

Yeah, Berlin is a great city for many reasons, but its administration is not one if its strengths, to put it mildly.

The surrounding lakes are definitely nice, just not compatible with the climate for say 8 out of the 12 months, so a better/cheaper/more accessible selection of indoor pools would be nice. And a solution to the cesspool that is the open air pools, where a certain demographic is ruining it for everyone (and has done so for decades).

[hylaride]

> but its administration is not one if its strengths, to put it mildly.

You've just described the whole country, TBH.

[h4ckerle]

I don't know where you live or what experiences you've made but I just had a look into my municipalities online appointment system and there are 5 slots free to book just for tommorow.

[hylaride]

I lived in Germany about a decade ago.

The Germany federal government’s procurement process is kafkaesque at best (especially the armed forces); Germany spends as much on defence as France, yet France has a nuclear deterrent, nuclear subs, a nuclear aircraft carrier, and a sizable fighter jet fleet - all domestically designed and built. Germany’s government barely maintains its kit.

The railways are late a third of the time. The Swiss want to ban Deutsche Bahn trains because they’re causing so many problems.

The German telecom operators are terrible. Domestic internet is slow and the cell phone networks are the same.

The country just doesn’t invest in itself and when it does it can’t effectively execute.

I’m not saying Germany is a shithole, but its government bureaucracy is generally terrible and business administration lackluster (and yes, there are exceptions to the rule).

I’ll add that I’ll tear the shit out of my home country (Canada) similarly. We have similar issues with government procurement.

[CaptainZapp]

> The railways are late a third of the time. The Swiss want to ban Deutsche Bahn trains because they’re causing so many problems.

That's not quite correct. What the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) started to do is to not allow German trains onto the network if they're massively delayed (I think massively being more than 15 minutes), which, of course happens a lot.

My take is that it's partially educational (as in get your shit together if you want to use our network) and partially it really is a logistical problem and messes up the network.

The train network in Switzerland is used so densely that allowing too many delayed trains onto it has a serious impact and would incur knock on effects.

[nicbou]

Berlin just does it worse, even though it has greater challenges that explain it.

[lippihom]

Check out the public pool in Kleinmachnow during the summer - far fewer crowds and very nice water.

[expertentipp]

One doesn't need to work and pay taxes in Berlin to take a bicycle ride there, and better don't enter into or swim in its murky lakes and ponds.

[nicbou]

There are many more good reasons to live in this dysfunctional hellhole of a city. Otherwise I'd have left a long time ago. No matter what, I still love it there.

[FirmwareBurner]

>There are many more good reasons to live in this dysfunctional hellhole of a city

What are those reasons, that don't also exist in other better-run European cities, like Vienna for example? At least there you don't have to fight 200 other people for a shitty overpriced apartment.

I also like Berlin to visit, attend tech conferences or meet-up, concerts and parties, but moving there now would simply wear me out.

[nicbou]

They're personal, but it's just a fun city to live in. Besides, I've spent too much time on that damn paperwork to give up!

[FirmwareBurner]

>They're personal, but it's just a fun city to live in

Sure that's understandable, but that's nothing objective in that, that's just a personal choice based on personal taste and circumstances, which can apply to any other city if you think about it.

There are so many other fun cities in Europe where you don't have to put up with all that nonsense.

That's nothing special to warrant overhyping Berlin even further, it already suffers from a branch of the Paris syndrome they could call it Berlin syndrome.