This week, Zurich City’s executive tore up an agreement between opposing political camps on parking, according to RTS. The agreement, known as the “Parkplatzkompromiss” which came into force in 1996, was a simple agreement to maintain the status quo. No new parking would be added and no existing parking would be taken away. Now, with […]
Zurich city launches initiative to allow foreigners to vote
Last week, the city of Zurich filed a cantonal initiative to allow foreigners to vote at a municipal level in the canton. In July 2019, Corine Mauch, Zurich’s mayor, announced her plan to launch the initiative. If the initiative is successful foreign residents with B or C permits who have lived in Zurich for at […]
Swiss taxis Europe’s most expensive
In a recent comparison of taxi fares across Europe, Geneva and Zurich were the most expensive. In the study, which focused on the total cost of a taxi journey from the airport to the centre of town, Geneva (€36 – CHF40) and Zurich (€63 – CHF70) fared better than Milan (€105) and London (€104), which […]
Zurich’s mayor wants to let foreigners vote
Speaking to the newspaper Tages-Anzeiger recently, Corine Mauch, Zurich’s mayor said she plans to launch an initiative to give foreign residents the chance to vote at a municipal level. Mauch, whose mother Ursula Mauch was the first female federal parliamentarian from the canton of Aargau, said that while foreign residents live, work and pay taxes […]
Rents have risen in Switzerland’s main cities, according to rental website
The website homegate.ch has compiled data on rental prices in Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva over the last two years. The data shows how rents have risen in these cities and presents them on maps showing prices rises by suburb in each of these cities. The data presents rental prices for a 70 square metre […]
A family apartment in Geneva close to twice the price of one in St. Gallen
On average, renting a 4.5 room apartment of 100 to 110 m2 costs CHF 3,820 a month in Geneva. The same apartment in the Swiss city of St. Gallen costs CHF 2,004, 52% of the price, according to a report on rents in Switzerland’s ten main cities by the price comparison website Comparis. For an […]
Swiss vote could cause chaos at Swiss airports
A referendum aimed at rejecting changes to Swiss gun laws scheduled for 19 May 2019 could cause major disruption at airports in Zurich and Geneva if it succeeds, according to various newspapers. If the vote is successful it might eventually lead to the exclusion of Switzerland from the Schengen area. If this happened, immigration staff […]
Three Swiss cities ranked in world’s top 10 most livable
Mercer’s 2019 livability ranking looks at 231 cities across the globe. Vienna comes top for the tenth year in a row, while Bagdad ranks last. Three Swiss cities are among the global top ten. Zurich is 2nd, Geneva 9th and Basel 10th. Bern, a fourth Swiss city, is not far behind in 14th place. No […]
Zurich and Geneva make Europe’s top 5 most livable cities
This year the world’s most livable city was Vienna, which knocked Melbourne, the leader for seven years, off its top spot. The annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit looks at 140 cities around the world. Zurich and Geneva both rose in the 2018 global ranking. Zurich from 15th to 11th place, and Geneva from 18th […]
Aerial photos of Zurich 100 years apart
The first photograph was taken by Eduard Spelterini between 1893 and 1924. Swiss-born Spelterini was an early aviator who took to the air with his camera in a balloon well before flying as we know it became a reality – the Wright brothers made their first powered flight in 1903. The photograph below was taken […]
