Basel – who’s moving in, who’s had enough; Big Brother Comes a Step Closer; Robbery at Coop; High Winds in Basel

News on 31 March 2015

The ups and downs of Basel Stadt’s population has been a popular theme for many years, with some commentators drawing the obvious link between overall numbers and the city’s popularity. Interestingly, the population of Swiss people in the town has actually fallen over the past year, but a 2 percent increase in foreigners moving in has helped swell the total to a proud 197 thousand – well, nearly, anyway. Maybe they like the night-life more than the locals. Certainly international trade likes the area, with BaselWorld, the largest watch and jewellery Show anywhere, which, by the time the twenty fifteen extravaganza closed last week, recorded 150 thousand visitors from more than 100 countries. But, aside from those staying for only a few days, non-Swiss residents now make up a hefty 35 percent of Basel Stadt, a rise of 5 percent in just 10 years. Still, it’s not as high as Geneva, where 40 percent of taxpayers are foreigners.

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In Aargau, levels of crime of all kinds have fallen over the past 12 months. A good result perhaps, but with more than six break-ins per thousand residents last year countrywide, the police in our neighbour canton want even better results – especially when it involves so-called criminal tourists. And, in pursuit of zero tolerance, next month they’ll take a decision whether to add crime forecasting software to the regular arsenal. The Precops programme works by identifying behaviour patterns. The prediction part relies on criminals’ preference for tricks that have been successful in the past, plus their habit of returning to districts where pickings have been most profitable.

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More serious gun crime, however, might just prove a bit more difficult to get rid of, especially in Basel where it’s said the City’s police recruitment campaigns aren’t working. Lately there have been a number of robberies at shops and petrol stations throughout the region, the latest at a Coop branch in Basel’s Obwaldnerstrasse, just south of Kannenfeldpark. Last Thursday afternoon a man, seemingly acting alone, entered the shop and threatened a female shop assistant with a gun. After grabbing a few hundred francs, he ran out and made a clean getaway.

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And so to the weather...

...everybody’s talking about it – not just the Brits here at The English Show. Together with the rest of the country, Basel is only now slowly crawling out the worst gales since the Lothar hurricane in 1999. Normally we’re lucky here, with European countries nearer the Ocean taking most of the punishment handed out by Atlantic frontal systems. Not over the past couple of days though. Throughout the day today, a deep front has stretched from Scotland right through central Europe. The worst of the weather came early this afternoon, with gusts up to 170 kilometres an hour damaging thousands of buildings in the storm’s path. But there’s always a sunny side, as they say. At six this morning in Liestal, temperatures had already climbed to 15 degrees. And the mild weather’s set to stick around for a couple of days at least.