After "Krone" report:

More and more votes for a park instead of a ruined department store

Many are convinced that a park would also be good for trade on Mariahilfer Strasse: as a "green shopping mile", it would be so attractive that empty stores would be a thing of the past.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, APA Picturedesk, stockadobe)

"Krone readers are increasingly backing the idea of a new park instead of the Signa ruins. A survey on Mariahilfer Strasse confirms the mood - and shows what Vienna really wants. Clearly not a department store.

Enthusiasm for the vision of a park - where the ruins of the department store now spoil Mariahilfer Strasse - is unbroken. Krone readers express their approval in letters, Internet comments and emails, and people on Mariahilfer Strasse itself are also dreaming of a new green space in the city: how could anyone be against a park, is often the counter-question in the Krone survey.

Please not another dozen department stores!
All respondents also agree that what is least needed is another department store with the same old global brands: This would only make life even harder for small retailers and producers and would be bland even for shopaholic Viennese. "Get rid of it! There are enough stores, and the brands in department stores are the same all over the world anyway. A park is much better," says Jan M. The 54-year-old native of the Netherlands has traveled a lot as a shopper and knows what he's talking about.

However, a passer-by can well imagine a department store exclusively for young Viennese companies that can show what they can do there at moderate rents - or another rededication of the building in the public interest, because she thinks it would be "disastrous to demolish the building where so much work and money has already gone into it. And then all those months of dirt and construction noise would have been for nothing!"

"Of course I would be in favor of a park. The 7th district needs green space. I'm just afraid that's utopian."

Bianca T., 32, Tiertherapeutin

Bild: Martin Jöchl

Demand for "compensation"
Walter S., a 53-year-old entrepreneur, is doubly annoyed due to his professional experience: while hard-working people like him dutifully paid high taxes, risk investors got away with sinking millions without any consequences. He believes that the debacle surrounding the department store block should be treated as a criminal offense - and compensation should be paid to society accordingly, which should benefit at least in part from the proceeds of the sale.

Many "Krone" readers also suggest by email that the shell of the building should be put to good use, for example by creating a retirement home in the city center - or, in the spirit of Viennese Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr, a school. The number of people who have contacted the "Krone" or been interviewed on Mariahilfer Strasse and who are looking forward to the implementation of Benko's original plans is certainly manageable. To be more precise, it is exactly zero.