🌤️ Guten Morgen, Berlin!

Here’s your quick update on what’s happening around the city on Wednesday, September 03 - from urgent alerts to stories in the subreddit. Today we went through 100+ articles, posts and events so you don't have to. Let’s dive in.

🇩🇪 Tick alert! 75 percent more Lyme disease cases in Berlin

Berlin recorded 41 new Lyme disease cases in the week of Aug. 18–24, bringing this year’s total to 862, 75% above the pre-pandemic median for the same period, the city’s health authority said.

Officials attribute the rise to more ticks driven by milder, wetter winters and warmer springs that extend tick activity. Case differences between districts likely reflect diagnostic practices rather than higher local risk.

Authorities will continue surveillance and prevention outreach as tick activity remains elevated, tracking tick-borne encephalitis after 15 cases in 2024 and six so far this year. (B.Z. – Die Stimme Berlins, 2 minute read)

🇩🇪 Association for the Blind files suit against the Senate: Are e-scooters threatened with extinction in Berlin?

Berlin’s administrative court will hear Oct. 1 a suit by the city’s association for the blind, representing over 25,000 residents, seeking disclosure and revocation of special-use permits that allow free-floating rental e-scooters on sidewalks.

The case challenges Berlin’s authority to authorize mass scooter parking on sidewalks and cites pedestrian safety and disability rights. A ruling could hit operators like Bolt, Lime, Dott, and Voi, despite recent measures that reduced parking violations and stabilized accidents.

After the hearing, the court’s decision could force changes to Berlin’s scooter program and influence other cities, following a May ruling that upheld Oranienburg’s refusal to allow rental e-scooters. (Berliner Zeitung, 4 minute read)

🇬🇧 State helps with move to smaller apartment

Berlin’s state housing companies will offer tenants up to three options to downsize within a year, with moves coordinated to avoid overlap and rents set at the local comparative rate without new-tenant surcharges.

Transfers will occur only within each company’s portfolio, aiming to better match unit size to household needs and free up larger flats. In 2022, Berlin households averaged just under 75 square meters; about one in seven single-person households occupied at least 80 square meters.

Officials will monitor uptake and the program’s effect on freeing larger units; for now, moves are limited to internal transfers, with any expansion to intercompany exchanges yet to be decided. (Berlin.de, 1 minute read)

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✝️ Fun Fact: When sunlight hits the mirrored sphere of Berlin’s TV Tower, it reflects a glowing cross – a phenomenon nicknamed the “Pope’s Revenge,” since it was an unintended embarrassment for the secular East German regime that built the tower.

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