Lively exchange in the Senefelderquartier, Musikerviertel and Buchrain

Economic development does not happen by chance, it is the result of work, a plan and many discussions, emphasized Schwenke. The city has recently achieved some successes in this regard: The valve manufacturer Samson with 2,000 jobs and the biotech company BioSpring with around 1,500 jobs will settle on the new Offenbach Innovation Campus in the east of the city. The creative industries are also important for Offenbach; various creative agencies are based in Nordend and the new building at the harbor will provide the Hochschule für Gestaltung with a new location.

Many large companies such as Hyundai, Fuji Electric and Danfoss already have their headquarters in Kaiserlei. The IT service company of the German health insurance funds ITSG has also relocated here. Lorenz Snack World will move its headquarters to Offenbach in December of this year.

Schwenke does not expect the city to see higher revenues from the new settlements until the end of this decade at the earliest.

The mayor also addressed the city's expenditure: most of the investments are made in education, especially in the renovation of daycare centers and school buildings. The second largest expenditure item is the operating subsidies for daycare centers. "We are prioritizing education," emphasized Schwenke. For this reason, the city bought the former Kaufhof building in 2024, into which the city library is to move after the building has been renovated. Quiet learning spaces with fast internet access are to be created there, especially for children who live in cramped living conditions.

Other central topics of city policy include the development of the city center, for which the city center future concept exists, affordable housing and the expansion of district heating.

The bicycle lane on Senefelderstraße was discussed several times during the Q&A sessions. A young woman complained about the lack of a speed limit and the abrupt end of the cycle lane on Starkenburgring. A man pointed out that the buses drive too fast there and overtake cyclists with too little distance between them. In addition, the e-buses in particular are so heavy that they would "rattle" if there was a pothole in front of the home for the blind. Ivonne Gerdts, Head of the Office for Mobility, explained that a speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour always applies in cycle lanes. From the Starkenburgring, there is a cycle route that is marked with pictograms. The city had provided information about the rules on cycle streets and was campaigning for a state or even nationwide campaign to make the rules better known. Lothar Haack, head of the city police, announced that mobile speed checks would be carried out there and that Yoel Elias from OVB would monitor the speed of bus drivers.

One elderly man was concerned about the lack of space for cyclists on Senefelderstraße. Cars are allowed to park on the street instead of on the sidewalk with two tires as before. In Herrmannstraße, on the other hand, cars parked on the sidewalk, leaving too little space on the sidewalk. The head of the mobility office pointed out that experience shows that the speed of motorists is also related to the width of the road, which is why the decision was made to narrow the road to accommodate stationary traffic. If drivers were still driving too fast on Senefelderstrasse, speed measurements would have to be carried out. She will have the situation in Herrmannstraße checked.

A woman complained about parking offenders in the Musikantenviertel. Only residents were allowed to park there, yet many vehicles were parked there without authorization. A man, on the other hand, pointed out the many commercial vehicles parked in Weikertsblochstraße. The head of the municipal police explained that commercial vehicles are also allowed to use public traffic areas and park there. Only HGVs are not allowed to do so. Regarding the parking offenders, he explained that the traffic police staff cannot walk all the streets every day. However, they would keep an eye on the Musikantenviertel.

Two people were concerned about road safety and speeding in Buchrainweg. The southern section is used as a shortcut to the highway and cars are parked in such a way that you can hardly get past them at the side of the road. One woman complained that people were driving too fast in the northern section. The city should set up a 30 km/h zone and put up "metal plates". Gerdts said that the city was currently examining what measures should be taken to reduce through traffic. The city rejects "metal plates" or speed bumps, as they are particularly dangerous for cyclists and also cause too much noise. In the southern part, studies had shown that most of the traffic was caused by the residents themselves. There was hardly anything that could be done without restricting residents. Haack, head of the municipal police, announced that further traffic measurements would be carried out.

A young man asked about the sources of district heating. Martin Ochs from EVO explained that this comes from the waste heat from a waste-to-energy plant and a coal-fired power plant. The latter will only run until 2030 and will then be replaced by waste heat from data centers. More detailed explanations can be found on the EVO website.

Another man asked about the status of the public tender for electric charging columns. Mayor Schwenke explained that the city had granted three providers the right to install e-charging stations in public areas. There are currently already ten e-charging points, and 40 are to be installed by the end of the year, with the focus on areas with perimeter block development. By 2030, 100 e-charging stations are planned. The charging stations are alternating current (AC) charging stations. They were chosen because of the grid capacity.

One man asked why damaged paving slabs were not being repaired. City Treasurer Martin Wilhelm explained that this was not always possible immediately. The city invests in education first and therefore cannot raise the necessary funds to repair all road damage immediately. The potholes would be removed bit by bit. If they would endanger road safety, of course immediately. This was also confirmed by Christian Loose, deputy ESO operations manager, who said that the first thing to do with any damage was to check whether and how it could be repaired.

A man from Buchrain complained about a house in the neighborhood that was built too high. A four-storey house had been built next to detached houses. Schwenke recommended that he could contact the building inspectorate with the exact details of the location and photos so that they could check whether the building law had been complied with.

An elderly man asked whether he could buy the leased plot of land on which his house stood. The mayor informed him that under current law, leasehold properties cannot be purchased. This had been decided by the city council so as not to lose any more municipal land. However, in old leases from the 1980s, there was the possibility of buying the leasehold land.

• Buchhügel, Bieberer Berg - Thursday, 24.04.2025
• Bieber, Bieber-Waldhof, Wednesday, 04.06.2025
• Carl-Ulrich-Siedlung, Tempelsee, Thursday, 13.11.2025
  The dates take place from 7 to 9 pm.