New Food Court For Basel; AirBnB Set To Overtake Basel Hotel Industry; Excessive Swiss Roaming Charges Under Assault; Evacuation at Basel Airport

News For 19 September 2017

Claraplatz in Kleinbasel is the site of a new food court styled like the Markthalle called Klara which opened last week.  The food court is built around a central bar with 9 different stalls for each cuisine, currently configured for Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, African and of course, Burger Cuisines.  One of the 9 stalls will be reserved for chefs to try out new cuisine concepts meant to follow the seasons.  The developers of the project are associated with the same group that has been working on the Markthalle near SBB for the last few years, and intend to also offer Music and Concerts at Klara- Halle as they do at Markthalle. 

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According to AirBnB's Watchblog website, there were 6455 available beds in 3134 rooms in Basel in July of this year.  Despite, the construction of new hotels in recent years, Basel's official Hotel industry trade group only claims to have had 7543 beds during the same period.  Even more shockingly, AirBnB's available beds were up almost 50% from the prior year, indicating massive growth.  According to Basel authorities, it is very likely most of the rooms on offer are operated commercially, and where the owner has more than 20 rooms, and without a permit, they are also operating illegally.  Cases are already being litigated where authorities are concerned that in an already tight housing market, the incentive to purchase for rental makes finding long-term housing even more challenging to find.

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EU Countries agreed to end roaming charges on mobile telephones this last June.  So you might be left wondering why having a Swiss mobile phone entitles you to paying 1.8 times the average European rate for making a roaming call, and 2.7 times the average European rate for receiving one.  Apparently, the Swiss government is also seeking to tackle these questions.  As part of a broader review to telecommunications rules, which have remained unchanged since 2007, they intend to change the rules on what Swiss telecom operators can charge for roaming calls.

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Euro-Airport, the airport servicing Basel was evacuated today after a man forced his way passed the security checkpoints.  Late this morning, the unidentified man, triggered a door alarm in the security checkpoint area alerting the police and authorities who then evacuated the entire terminal to apprehend the person.  After the man was found, the approximately 900 people that had already been inside the secured part of the terminal, were allowed to go through the security screening again, on their way to departure.  Six airplanes' departures were delayed by approximately an hour and only one flight was cancelled according the Airport operations.