Newsletter «Zurich (Inter)national»

In 2021, the City of Zurich will enter into a temporary city-to-city collaboration on the topic of «safe cycling» with the City of Graz in Austria. Within the cooperation this strategic focus area of the city council will be addressed in an open dialogue and joint projects.

Graz has a similar population size as Zurich and shares some important characteristics: both cities face similar challenges with regard to the combination of tram network and bicycle traffic as well as the hilly topography. Nevertheless, twice as many cyclists in Graz move through their daily lives in relation to the other modes of transport than in Zurich.

The cooperation with Graz starts with a visit of representatives of the City of Zurich to Graz in order to gain insights into innovative traffic solutions in favor of safe bicycle traffic. The Foreign Affairs Office of the City of Zurich supports the cooperation in all steps.

The dynamic growth of Hamburg has been gaining momentum for ten years – similar to Zurich. The debates about the future development of the Hanseatic city focus on the great demand for affordable housing, the change of how we work and digitalization. However, more visible will be probably the decisions regarding rapid transit expansion, the transformation of the magistrals and the further development of Hamburg's public spaces. On this basis, Hamburg is planning the development of the spatial model Hamburg 2040. Dr. Dorothee Stapelfeldt, Senator in the Department of Urban Development and Housing, invited to a first expert workshop on November 4, 2020, to kick off this process.

The diverse program ranged from forecasts by the Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung and the Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt und Energie to reports on concrete strategic development processes from Munich, Karlsruhe, London and Zurich. At the end of the day, the Hamburg approach of developing a guiding vision on the basis of seven planning, economic and socio-political theses had gained much approval. But also hints on risks and the lessons learned were discussed. The City of Zurich will be happy to continue the exchange with Hamburg in the future, which has almost become a tradition in recent years.