For the first time, citizens' questions were answered via livestream instead of on site

Last fall, the OB on-site appointments could actually take place on site under strict conditions. Due to rising coronavirus numbers, this was not possible at this year's kick-off event on April 8. Instead, Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke was connected digitally in his living room and answered questions from Offenbach's citizens via livestream.

A total of 433 viewers took up the offer of the digital OB on-site appointment and diligently asked questions in the livestream chat. Around 240 questions were asked that evening. More than 100 questions had already been received by email beforehand. So many questions could not be answered in two hours, but the open questions are gradually being answered online at www.offenbach.de/antworten-ob-vor-ort.

The OB on-site appointments are important to Mayor Schwenke. On the one hand, it allows him to provide information about the work of the city administration, and on the other hand, it is an additional opportunity for the mayor, who himself walks through the city with his eyes wide open, to find out which problems are particularly important at the moment. "This exchange allows us to improve in the town hall," says Schwenke.

The evening began with an introduction by the Lord Mayor: "Offenbach is still a poor city. On the one hand, we must therefore continue to engage with the federal and state governments, as they still do not pay for all the social laws they decide on. Offenbach is one of the cities for which this is a major problem that the citizens here have to iron out with high taxes. On the other hand, this is why economic development is particularly important to me. A major milestone this year is that we were able to conclude an agreement for Samson AG to relocate to the Innovation Campus, which will bring a particularly economically strong and renowned company to Offenbach in the coming years," said Schwenke. Overall, Mayor Schwenke is relying on many different building blocks to stabilize Offenbach as a business location. For example, it has also been possible to further expand the creative industries in Nordend. The development of office space is being driven forward specifically for the Kaiserlei area. The construction of data centers is also a building block in the age of the platform economy: "However, it is clear that data centers consume a lot of electricity and generate waste heat. This is why EVO, for example, will use the waste heat from the data center on its own campus. After all, the economy and the environment must be reconciled as far as possible," Schwenke continues.

The issue of housing is also close to the mayor's heart: "Housing will never become cheaper, it would be a lie to claim otherwise. But the city is fighting for every single apartment and is doing everything it can to ensure that rents rise as slowly as possible."

After the mayor's speech, the questions from citizens continued. Questions about the current corona policy, problems with waste accumulation and noise in the port area and the nuisance caused by speeding cars were particularly frequent. Christian Broos from the Cleanliness Department presented the "Pizzabox" pilot project as a solution to the increasing amount of waste on the harbor steps: "Due to the closure of the restaurants, there is more waste from takeaway food and pizza boxes at the harbor, among other things. To ensure that the garbage cans are not constantly full because of the large number of pizza boxes, we will soon be installing a so-called pizza box on the harbor steps, which is only intended for pizza boxes." Stadtservice has also adjusted its cleaning schedule. "The amount of waste has increased due to coronavirus," confirms Christian Loose, deputy operations manager at ESO Eigenbetrieb. "But here, too, we are appealing to citizens: use the defect report and enter where and what the problem is. Over 1,000 reports have already been received this year. These were not only reports about garbage, but also about potholes or defective park benches, for example. We can then respond very quickly to the reports and send someone to solve the problem."

Another piece of good news: 270 trees will be planted in the city this year. In order to take good care of the young trees, a dedicated watering vehicle has been purchased. Various flowering plants will also be planted.

During the course of the evening, questions were asked about video surveillance, noise pollution from cars at the Mainufer parking lot, barrier-free renovation of the main train station and parking offenders. All unanswered questions will be gradually added to www.offenbach.de/antworten-ob-vor-ort. Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke currently answers questions about Corona in detail in three videos in the "OB Direkt" series. The second video has been available on the city's Facebook account and on YouTube and www.offenbach.de/corona since April 12. The third video was published on April 14.