Economist.com Cities Guide: Zurich Briefing - February 2006

News this month

If it ain’t broke

Zurich’s local elections on February 12th largely maintained the status quo. The eight members of the city government who stood for re-election—there are nine in total—were comfortably returned. The city mayor, Elmar Ledergerber, easily held onto his position, winning more than three times as many votes as his challenger, Roger Liebi. The results were unsurprising in light of several pre-election surveys that found high levels of satisfaction among the general public. Voter turnout was also low at just over 33%, down from 48% four years ago.

Mr Liebi, a member of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, also stood for and lost the only vacant government seat; Gerold Lauber of the centrist Christian Democratic Party replaced Monika Weber, the ninth member of the executive and an independent who is retiring from her position as schools minister. The People’s Party, despite 16 years without a representative in Zurich’s city executive, maintained its position as the second-strongest party in the city’s parliament—the election saw it keep its 18.5% share of the vote. But the party still had to surrender seven of its previous 31 seats, under the parliament’s proportional representation system. The Social Democrats remain the most powerful faction, despite losing five of their 49 seats.

Battered reputation

A long-running scandal over alleged brutality by members of Zurich’s police force shows no sign of abating. In April 2002 two unnamed, plain-clothes policemen attempted to arrest a 23-year-old Bosnian—identified only as Eldar S.—whom they wrongly assumed was a drug-dealer. Not realising that the men were police, Eldar S. tried to fight them off, earning a broken arm and concussion. An inquiry into the event cleared these officers in February.

After studying eyewitness reports, Peter Schäppi, the investigating magistrate, said the officers had not committed any crime. He suggested that some of the more serious injuries might even have been inflicted following the Bosnian man's transfer to police custody—as Eldar S. had already claimed. Yet Mr Schäppi said he was not empowered to rule on such a possibility, as events at the police station were not within the scope of his investigation. The lawyer of Eldar S. told reporters it was “frightening” that somebody could be hospitalised by police without any repercussions, and promised to appeal against the judgement.

Poor Swiss

The outside world may view Switzerland as a land of unlimited wealth, but figures released at the end of January showed that plenty of Swiss are struggling to make ends meet. Studies carried out in several German-speaking cities revealed a marked increase in the number of 18- to 25-year-olds reliant on social-welfare payments. In Zurich, the figure for 2004 was 11% of people in this age group (up two percentage points on 2003). Meanwhile, Caritas, a local aid organisation, estimated that up to a million Swiss of all ages could be living below the poverty line. A more precise figure should emerge in May when the federal statistics office publishes the first nationwide survey of social-welfare recipients.

Stage fright

Zurich’s renowned Schauspielhaus theatre saw some unusually dramatic scenes at the end of January, when a strike by technical staff forced it to close its doors. The state-subsidised theatre, which has operated since 1892 and claims to be the only German-speaking theatre to have run uncensored throughout the second world war, had never previously been forced to close because of a labour dispute.

The technicians, disgruntled by a new pay structure, ended their four-day strike after reaching a compromise with the theatre’s management board. They agreed to return to work in exchange for a 1% pay increase, followed by a raise of a further percentage point in August 2007. The management warned, however, that cuts would still have to be made to balance the increases, and that job losses could not be ruled out.

All change

Zurich’s city parliament has approved plans for a SFr1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) building project centred on the main train station. The “Hauptbahnhof” project, which will create office-space for up to 8,000 workers, plus as many as 500 new flats, follows two other abandoned schemes to utilise 320,000 square metres of land adjoining the station. The new project was unanimously supported by the parliament, but could still face a public vote. Opponents of the scheme, angered at the planned involvement of private investors, need 4,000 votes to force a referendum on the plan. Unless objections slow the project, the new complex will be built in several stages and should be finished in 2018.

Catch if you can

February 2006

Take Away: Design for eating on the move

Until March 19th 2006

Zurich’s Museum of Design is taking a long, hard look at items most of us are happy to condemn to the rubbish bin. This show is devoted to today’s take-away culture, including its packaging, design and marketing ideas. Divided into bite-sized chunks, the exhibit compares “Japanese style” take-away with that of Zurich’s take-away-laden district of Niederdorf. 18th-century English picnic hampers are also on display, and a “littering” section considers the ugly side-effect of eating on the go.

Museum of Design, Ausstellungstrasse 60, 8005 Zurich. Tram 4 or 13 to ‘Museum für Gestaltung’ stop, or five-minute walk from Zurich main station. Tel: +41 (0) 43 446 6767. Open: Tues-Thurs, 10am-8pm; Fri-Sun 10am-5pm. Admission: SFr7 (concessions SFr5). For more details see the museum’s website.

More from the Zurich cultural calendar