Eight years ago I worked at Emmen Center and now I study at Viscosistadt. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I have explored the Emmen area more deeply. Since I am currently thinking about moving to Emmen over my study period (for convenience and more affordable rent than in my current place of residence Rotkreuz), the task of exploring Emmen comes just in time. This week I had two apartment viewings.
The way to the first apartment led me across Emmen. Walking through Gerliswilstrasse, feels like being abroad. It is multi cultural, noisy and the environment is poorly maintained and dirty. Being Greek, I’m used to colorful and noisy areas and I like them too. However, I would not choose this street as a place to live. The further I walked, the more diverse the buildings became. It is not only a cultural mix but also a mix of very different buildings. And so different were the two apartments I visited. The neighborhood of the first apartment was rather gloomy, not well maintained but close to nature. The area was deserted, although there were countless apartment blocks there. On the contrary, the second apartment. It was located on the opposite side of Emmen. The area was highly modern and clean. There were children playing and adults talking. Is there a community in Emmen after all? It fascinated me that neighborhoods a few minutes apart could be so different.
There is definitely something going on in Emmen. There is a lot of change going on and accordingly, you see a lot of construction sites, which deteriorate the image of Emmen. It is known that Emmen has a bad reputation in the surrounding society. However, when I look at the new neighborhoods, I see Emmen’s potential to prove its reputation wrong in the future.
Author: Nikoletta Temelkou