Change

In Berlin, check out Potsdamer Platz. Once a dead zone near the Berlin Wall, it's now a huge crater from which a skyline of silhouetted construction cranes shows the promise of regeneration to come. In New York, the skyline isn't changing as rapidly -- but Times Square is.

Telecom

Many people in Berlin use pocket cellular phones or Handys, as they are called. It is strange to watch them walk and talk through the streets of the former East Berlin, where many buildings pocked with bullet holes from World War II have suffered years of neglect.

For a long time after the Wall fell, it was literally impossible to get a telephone line set up in East Berlin. In Berlin it can take many weeks to get a telephone through Deutsche Telekom, currently the only telephone service provider in Germany. However, competition is growing in the cellular telephone market. Deutsche Telekom has a cell network, but there are several private cellular networks, and many cellular providers. The cell market in Germany is fairly deregulated, while the wire telephone service is still predominantly a government monopoly (though not for much longer -- Deutsche Telekom has already sold 25 percent of its shares to the public.) Can you imagine waiting eight weeks for telephone service in NYC? Three days is my limit.

Which leads me to the next logical comparison between Berlin and New York.

Dogshit

In New York we have the pooper scooper law. I've seen this enforced by people on the street. New Yorkers have a very low tolerance for dog owners who fail to attend to the disposal of their pet's waste. (We do generally assume that the fecal matter we see on the streets is of canine origin, don't we?) Berlin (specifically former West Berlin) is a city of dog owners -- a conclusion you'll quickly reach if you walk around much. In fact, stepping in Hündescheiße is part of life in Berlin. It may be happening even more since people are too busy talking on their Handys to look down.

Subway

In Berlin there are no turnstiles in the U-Bahn. Yippee! Just ticket machines and time stampers. No physical barrier is needed to make you pay the fare. Talk about the honor system: there it means, honor the rules. Many people admit to honoring their empty wallets as part of their system. It is easy to ride without paying, but you have to keep your eyes open: "controllers" patrol the trains and may request to see your ticket. If you don't have it, you'll pay a fine. Imagine a New York transit cop asking you if you paid at the turnstile (you couldn't prove it anyway). Ever seen a token clerk go after someone who jumps the turnstile? Not me.

Electric Minds

I first encountered David Hudson in the Berlin topic of the Frankfurt conference. It was a treat to have an eminds f2f in Berlin.and to trade stories about the two communities we have in common.

In conclusion, how about some...

Beer?

After several years of testing, I reached the conclusion that beer in Berlin the beer is stronger than it is in New York. And sometimes it's cheaper than water. "Beer" sounds the same in German as it does in English. This may be helpful as a survival mechanism if you speak no German and someday find yourself thirsty and lost in Germany.