Economist.com Cities Guide: Zurich Briefing - October 2005

News this month

Smokers under fire

Zurich’s Lung Association is working to ban smoking in the city’s restaurants. The group is organising a public petition, and if 4,000 people sign it, the cantonal government will be obliged to call a referendum. Otto Brändli, the health charity’s president, announced the petition two days after the canton of Ticino became the first Swiss regional authority to ban smoking in all public buildings. Mr Brändli says an existing motion slowly making its way through Zurich’s cantonal parliament does not go far enough as it only calls for “a greater protection of non-smokers in middle- and large-sized restaurants.”

Switzerland has some of the most lax smoking restrictions in Europe, and its proportion of smokers—around 31%—is one of the highest in the continent, according to a 2004 study. But perceptions of Switzerland as a “smokers’ paradise” could soon change. Several cantons are considering following Ticino’s example, while Felix Gutzwiller, a Zurich politician, is pressing for a vote on the ban in the national parliament. Smoking will also be banned on all major public-transport networks from December 11th.

Rumbling on

The row over noise levels from Zurich airport shows no sign of abating, with a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology provoking further debate in October. The report suggested that sensitivity to airport noise was largely subjective, based on an individual’s own feelings about the airport. The researchers also found that early-morning flight noise was more disruptive to sleep than late-night flights. This finding was seized on by those who are demanding limits on flights into and out of Zurich, and an expansion of the night-flight ban, which operates between 11pm and 6am.

The discussion began in earnest in October 2001, when Germany introduced restrictions on planes entering and leaving Zurich via southern German airspace. In October 2003, Swiss authorities responded with a new southern approach to allow flights to continue during the hours of the German ban, to the detriment of Zurchers living south of the airport.

Budget battle

The annual budget debate among Zurich’s cantonal politicians is set to be a noisy affair once again, after two of parliament’s biggest parties came out against plans to raise the basic tax rate by 5%. The cantonal government had proposed combining the tax hike with cuts in public spending in an effort to win cross-party support. But opposition to tax increases from the People’s Party and the Radical Party (who hold half the 180 parliament seats between them) could now see December’s debate end in a stand-off.

Even if approved, the budget envisages a deficit for 2006 of SFr181m ($141m), although the government is projecting positive figures for 2007 and 2008. The canton is, however, on course to present a balanced budget for the eight-year period from 2002 to 2009, as required by law. Critics have been quick to point out that this is mainly the result of the SFr1.6 billion Zurich unexpectedly earned as its share of the National Bank’s recent sale of surplus gold.

No harm done?

Reports of animal torturers roaming the Swiss countryside appear to have been exaggerated. Veterinary pathologists at Zurich University examined 13 cases of supposed torture in Zurich and the neighbouring canton of Aargau and found no evidence to support claims that the animals had been harmed by humans. Six of the animals had died of natural causes, while two had been attacked by foxes. The others—cows that had lost teats or tails—were attributed to accidents and bites from other animals.

The investigation came at the end of a summer filled with newspaper headlines about the supposed torturer. In Canton Basel-land police investigated 46 cases and reported that most had also involved false alarms or were at least unconfirmed. But they insisted that 18 incidents—all involving cows with mutilated genitalia—were genuine and still under investigation.

Bearly missed

Zurich has finally said goodbye—or perhaps good riddance—to the 630 giant, painted, plastic teddy bears that occupied the city’s streets throughout the summer. Dreamed up by Zurich’s City Association, the project saw local firms commissioning artists to decorate the bears in an effort to “captivate the hearts of everyone who sees them.”

So much for good intentions. By the end of “Teddy Summer Zurich 2005”, 300 teddies had been damaged, 50 seriously vandalised and 25 totally destroyed, thrown in the river or stolen. A handful more were kidnapped and taken to Lucerne, Basel and Bern in a bizarre political protest against Sunday shopping. And two never even made it onto the streets, having been censored for offending public decency and the Chinese government respectively. The bears did have some fans, however: at an auction in October, 159 of the plucky survivors were sold off for a total of SFr345,000, with almost SFr100,000 going to charity.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Van Gogh: Truly Fake

Until February 27th 2005

Emil Georg Bührle (1890-1956), a Zurich industrialist and art collector, cultivated one of the finest private collections of European art. In 1960 his family set up a foundation to publicly display some 200 pieces from his collection, including seven paintings by Vincent van Gogh. But it is a fake van Gogh self-portrait (pictured) that forms the centrepiece of this exhibition in a villa adjoining Bührle’s old house on Zollikerstrasse.

Visitors can learn the fascinating story of one of Bührle’s less successful buys, purchased a full nine years after the forgery’s existence was first brought to the attention of the art world. Lukas Gloor, the curator, has pieced together what happened (in German only). In this show, the genuine and fake van Goghs are displayed side by side, alongside authentic works by the likes of Monet, Cézanne, Renoir and Picasso.

Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zollikerstrasse 172, 8008 Zurich. Tel: +41 (0)44 422 00 86. Trams 2 and 4 to Wildbachstasse or S6 and S16 to Tiefenbrunnen station. Open: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sun 2pm-5pm. Entry: SFr9. For more details and an online tour of the museum’s collection, see the website.

More from the Zurich cultural calendar