Graz–Jan. 23, 2025

On the way back from class, I took a different route; I thought it might be shorter. It turned out to be about the same distance, but I did see these along the new route:

This appears to be some sort of night club / dance place.

In the Hauptplatz, a lot of merchants had signs like this one from WKO, the WirtschaftskammerOrganization (Chamber of Commerce):

A city needs everything. Bike paths. Schools. Social affairs. Culture. Plazas. Green space. But above all it needs: Workplaces. Apprenticeships. Taxes. Innovation. Life. That’s called business. Whoever forgets this, risks everything.

Another poster (which I did not get a picture of), reads:

Only when the last merchants have closed, the industries stand still, and nobody wants to be an entrepreneur any more: you will realize that the city can’t live only on traffic calming and social policies.

On the other hand, there was this opposing viewpoint:

The text translates to:

BLAAAAAAA.....

Those who offer overvalued junk, bad working conditions and poor advice like Temu offers - where shopping malls are being demolished on the outskirts of the city, where Sigi Nagl (former mayor of Graz) tries along with Kallmerth (a high-end store selling dishes and tableware) to be an entrepreneur, banks and insurance companies take the entire Herrengasse hostage and rents have been unaffordable for a long time - would rather blame a lack of parking spaces and the so urgently needed social policy .

WKOE - Wir Kotzen Ohne Ende (We puke constantly)
in the name of everyone, except 20,000 entrepreneurs