“Frau Merkel, Tear Down That House!”

Report on the Acela experience (as promised in my blog yesterday): that brand has been kept up quite well! On time, funny announcements, pleasant environment, really quite good.

However, I was mortified, as a German by birth, by the experience at my destination: the German Society of Pennsylvania, where I was invited for a reception by the “Minister President” of the State North-Rhine/Westphalia as part of his visit to the US. The German Society occupied a ramshackle, 3-story townhouse, on an abandoned block of Philadelphia’s Spring Garden Street. I thought I was in the demilitarized zone of the Berlin Wall, circa 1987 (see photo)!

Perhaps they are keeping it this way as a symbol of German social and economic decay? But I’m quite surprised, because in Germany they always “restore” everything for millions of dollars. They could learn something from the dynamic Chinese capitalists, who never saw a 10 year old building they didn’t tear down.

What would Ronald Reagan say? “Frau Merkel, tear down that house!”