We’ve spent nearly an entire week in Vienna. We have walked around our neighborhood and the adjacent ones extensively, stumbling across some interesting local buildings and several historic sites (Stephansdom, Karlskirche, Schloss Belvedere, Wiener Staatsoper, and several lovely parks.) I’m sure we’ll have more to report on the famous spots. Until then, here are a few reflections on living as temporary Wiener.
Vienna is arranged into 23 districts, spiraling like a snail’s shell. (It’s similar to, though not as sequentially ordered as, Paris’s arrondissements.) The historic city center, which is surrounded by the Ringstraße (the “ring road”) is district one. Districts 2 to 9 encircle it. Districts 10 to 23 are further out, and some of them are physically quite large.
We chose to live in Landstraße, one of the inner districts. It’s a more residential neighborhood, but it’s close to the city center and still feels quite urban. We realized we have yet to see any single-family homes. Most buildings in Landstraße are at least five stories high, if not six or seven. No buildings are only one, two, or three stories.
Relatedly, we immediately noticed the increased population density compared to our neighborhood in DC. Using Vienna’s latest reported population counts and some help from Google to convert square hectares into square miles, I calculated that Landstraße has nearly 33,000 people per square mile. That makes it about as dense as the Bronx. Comparatively, if the data on this Census Reporter website is accurate, the ward where we lived in DC has a population density of around 8,100 people per square mile. Granted, Ward 3 has a lot of giant single-family homes, and this census-tract-level map puts our old census tract at around 21,000 people per square mile. But I think you get the point—Landstraße feels denser because it is much denser.
Interestingly, housing is something that Vienna does very well. Per the city’s own website, the City of Vienna owns more units of public housing than any other entity in Europe. This includes 220,000 units owned outright by the city and another 200,000 co-operatives that it subsidizes. The first of these projects date back to the 1920s when the Social Democratic party won control of the city government. In total, over 50% of housing in Vienna today is publicly funded. The government ownership and subsidizing of housing also keeps the pricing of privately owned buildings low. Overall, it's an interesting lesson in what a progressive city government can do to create affordable housing when it has full self-governance of itself. (An aspiration, perhaps, for a certain other capital city I know well…)
We stumbled across some of these public housing projects in our neighborhood. The complex near us (pictured below) was built between 1928 to 1929. There are complexes like this one everywhere. We even found some just a few blocks from the Schloss Belvedere. Some of them are nicer looking than others. For example, we walked by one (photo two below) with a large park across the street. The one near us has some green space and a children’s play area in the middle, although that might be attached to the neighboring kindergarten.
One of the more interesting public projects near us is the Hundertwasserhaus. It was conceived by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist, who wanted to demonstrate that public housing could be beautiful and incorporate nature.
I’m also really intrigued by the Gasometers, four gigantic former gas towers that been converted into mixed-use space (apartments, a mall, a movie theater, etc.). They’re just over the border into the next district over.
One of the other interesting buildings in our neighborhood is the Palais Rasumofsky, which was built around 200 years ago by the Russian ambassador.
Since we are living here for a month, we’ve had to quickly learn our options for grocery shopping. These include Hofer (a rebrand of Aldi, a discount grocer), Billa (an Austrian chain), Billa Plus (a larger Billa), Spar (a Dutch chain widespread in Europe) and its variations: Eurospar (which seems like a regular grocery store) and Interspar (a gigantic Spar that is the closest thing to a Target we’ve found in Europe). To my earlier point about density, I’ve been amazed by how many grocery stores are nearby. Within a 10-minute walking radius, we can reach a Hofer, Billa Plus, Spar, Interspar, Eurospar, five Billas, a Turkish grocery store, and an Asian grocery store. Also, there’s an outdoor market Monday to Saturday at a nearby platz.
Relatedly, we have a plethora of public transit options nearby. We live by two trams lines, two U-Bahn lines, and several bus lines. Additionally, several S-Bahn and regional train lines run through a nearby station. We were able to purchase a monthly pass that allows us to use as much public transit as we want within the city. If we were permanent residents, we could invest in an annual transit pass that grants access to all public transit in the city for only 1 euro per day!
Want to read more about interesting policy changes in Austria? I found this Vox article on Austria’s smoking ban (which didn’t go into effect until 2019) to be really interesting. We are grateful that the local coffeehouses are smoke-free.
Another great post - I just met a woman here who works for Lidl (which I think is a direct competitor of Aldi, both being German-based grocery chains?) ... and she's moving to Berlin HQ to help with international expansion. Since I didn't note a Lidl on your extensive list of store options, perhaps Austria is on their list for expansion!
Unrelatedly, please also enlighten us as to how long it took you to figure out how to type that "ss" character, and whether you like it or think it's weird.
Love learning so much about the city at the historic, modern planning and everyday pedestrian levels through your eyes (and feet, and S-bahn lines). Don't forget to tell us more about how your impressively-honed German language skills are endearing y'all to baristas and bartenders left and right or....perhaps causing an occasional laugh back at the apartment! :)