This resulted in a several smaller posts and lots of military housing throughout the city and its suburbs. When we first moved here, the kids learned to recognize US military housing as "those places that look like prisons" (Rio) or "the only ugly buildings in Germany" (Marika). Sadly, for our service personnel, their assessments were pretty accurate. Here is one of the housing units in Heidelberg (taken today):
In October of our first year here (2009) US Army Europe announced that they were building new headquarters in Wiesbaden and that Heidelberg would be closing in a few years (much to the chagrin of the personnel who had been lucky enough to be stationed in a near perfect little city). By the time the last of the posts closed here in May of last year, and the final ceremonies were held in June, I had heard dozens of dire predictions (mostly from those in the military) about how badly the economy in the area would be harmed by losing the large population of US military and their families and support personnel. I was thinking about those predictions today as I happened to be out near the first of the housing units (all now having been turned back over to Germany) that has been converted into student housing. These are directly across the street from the units posted above:
Wow! What a difference some cheerful paint makes.
After nearly five years of closed and locked gates (most of the abandoned posts are still closed and locked up awaiting renovations), it feels a little odd to see the barbed wire gone and the gates wide open. It is a wonderful sort of odd though.
These units have all been converted into student housing, and students in Heidelberg tend to ride bikes very often. I love that each building has a covered and locked bike shed for residents.
I have no access to any official numbers only my own observations to go by, but so far I have seen very little negative economic impact and quite a bit of positive (which surprised me, but makes sense when I think about it).
One restaurant, which catered almost exclusively to Americans, did close down--even faster than I had predicted it would. They served large portions, for low prices, which appealed to the US mentality, but I never met a German who had eaten there more than once (and it is walking distance from my house) because the quality was just not good enough for the local population. We gave it a second try, and regretted having done so, so seeing that close was really not heartbreaking to us.
The Pizza Hut and Ford dealers in the area formerly known as "Little America" are both still open but never very busy anymore. No where else, even Mandy's American Diner seems to be lacking in customers.
In fact here in our little town (where many US service families lived in rentals when post housing was full), both our main grocery store and our Aldi have expanded to make up for the increase in customers now that all those rental homes are occupied by people shopping in local stores instead of at the commissary in Patrick Henry Village. Likewise, down by those housing units I was photographing this morning, a small Rewe supermarket closed down and was replaced by a much larger Rewe and an Aldi and a DM (drug store); again, needed to accommodate the literally thousands of residents who now shop locally instead of on post.
Overall I am happy to see the city thriving 9 months into the new era, and some of the eyesores being turned into cute places for students. We are anxious to see what happens to Patrick Henry Village, and hope it doesn't remain locked and abandoned for too much longer.
--Hadley
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