Dramatic Growth in Cross Border Workers; Rhein River Treasure On Display; BVB Rider Statistics Released; Fasnacht Final Preparations Underway

News For 28 February 2017

Last Thursday, the Swiss Statistics Office (BFS) released startling figures showing a rise of over 26% in 5 years in the number of employees working in Switzerland, but living in a neighboring country.  Close to 320,000 people now come to work in Switzerland from primarily France, Italy and Germany every day, which translates to 6% of the country's total work force.  The largest portion of those coming to work in Switzerland do so in the Lake Geneva region where they make up 12% of the region's labor market.  However, in Ticino, Italians make up 27% of the local work-force where the high proportion of foreign labor has long been a source of controversy.  In 2014 the Swiss People's Party (SVP) successfully pushed a referendum in the Canton to preference local over "foreign" labor.  Although nationalist efforts to control labor markets have gained traction recently, Switzerland has seen its foreign labor market share grow in every year for a century and, in fact, has grown more slowly in recent years.  

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The Basel Historical Museum in Barfusserplatz has put out a call to Baselers for contributions for an upcoming exhibition.  The planned exhibition for September of this year will be called "surfacing" and will feature items and their stories found in the waters of the Rhine.  The museum has been experimenting with exhibitions that encourage the population to participate with their personal experiences.  The exhibition's goal is to let the archaeological artifacts like coins, weapons, jewelry, bicycles and personal effects drive the stories on display.  Even the IG Ryybutzete, the Basel enterprise responsible for cleaning the river's waters, will be contributing to the items on display after their annual river cleaning.

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Friday saw the release of ridership statistics by the BVB, Basel's public transportation operator of trams and buses.  1.39 million passengers used the service in 2016, a decline of 1% from the prior year.  Broken down by mode of transport, approximately 70% of the riders used the tram and 30% used buses - a slight shift in favor of buses.  The decline in ridership was largely attributed to the construction work on tram lines last summer which prevented service in the inner city and on Klybeckstrasse - two major thoroughfares for riders.  The construction work also helps explain the shift in ridership from trams to buses as people sought alternatives for the tram disruptions.  

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In the final run-up to Fasnacht, the Basel Sanitation and Construction departments have been busy preparing the city.  Along the parade routes that the Fasnacht Clieques follow, 200 garbage bins and public benches will be removed.  Public parking for cars is not available during the festival, so the process of clearing and towing vehicles has already begun.  Over 500 signs are installed to guide revelers safely throughout the city.  To deal with the expected quantity of confetti, 240 sewage control shafts and 530 inlet ducts are cleaned to ensure they don't clog.  Despite all this cleaning, it will be done once again by an army of 290 city workers just 3 days after the Carnival begins to restore the city to its pre-fest state.