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CRIME

Bored Zurich teens go on costly vandalism spree

Two teenagers who caused 500,000 francs ($537,000) of damage to cars and construction vehicles told police on their arrest that they went on a vandalism spree because they were “bored”.

Published: 5 September 2014 11:28 CEST
Bored Zurich teens go on costly vandalism spree
The pair set fire to vehicles in a quarry. Photo: Zurich cantonal police

The two youths from Bülach went on the rampage in a quarry in Hüntwangen, canton of Zurich, in November 2013.

They started by setting fire to a truck and a car, before driving a digger, breaking the windows of several cars and destroying street furniture around the stations of Hüntwangen and Eglisau.

According to a statement by Zurich cantonal police on Thursday the teenagers were finally arrested nearly nine months later after a long investigation.

The pair admitted their crimes to police, saying that they were bored and drunk when they committed them.

The investigation also led to the arrest of two other teens, aged 17 and 18, who, along with the first pair, carried out several burglaries in the Eglisau industrial estate in summer 2013.

The quartet stole 12,000 francs ($13,000) worth of computers, cameras, camcorders and mobile phones, and caused damage amounting to 22,000 ($24,000) francs.

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ZURICH

Growth spurt: What Zurich needs to do to accommodate 2 million residents

Switzerland's biggest city Zurich is becoming more densely populated. With the population expected to pass the 2 million mark in the coming years authorities are devising plans to make it liveable for new residents.

Published: 29 April 2024 15:08 CEST
Growth spurt: What Zurich needs to do to accommodate 2 million residents

At the end of 2023, over 1.6 million people lived in Zurich, Switzerland’s most populous canton.

But this number is far from static.

The population is continuing to grow — so much so, that it will reach the 2-million mark in the coming years, cantonal authorities said in a press release.

This means an increase of around 450,000 people within the next two decades — a 28-percent growth rate, which is “significantly higher than the Swiss average.”

The primary reason for this hike, accounting for 49 percent of the increase, is immigration, followed by births (44 percent) and, to a lesser degree (7 percent), people moving to Zurich from other Swiss regions

On one hand, this is good news because “it is evidence of the canton’s attractiveness and economic prosperity,” authorities pointed out.

On the other, however, this demographic evolution will create a number of new problems and exacerbate the already existing ones.

That is why “strategic decisions are needed on how to handle challenges facing various areas,”  cantonal officials said.

‘Dealing with consequences’

With this ‘growth spurt,’ Zurich will experience many of the same challenges as Switzerland on the whole will, as demographers are expecting the country’s population to swell to 10 million (from the current 9 million) people in the coming years. 

Just as the federal government has started to think about the best ways to prepare the country’s infrastructure for the growing numbers, Zurich’s authorities too will be “shaping this growth” and “dealing with its consequences.”

To achieve this goal, they have launched the ‘Growth 2050” project to begin in the summer, which will  examine “which approach is most suitable for strategically addressing the challenges ahead,” according to the press release.

What exactly does this mean?

While the project’s findings will not be made public until 2027, authorities will have to ensure that Zurich’s infrastructure, such as housing, public transport, as well as school and healthcare systems, will not crumble under pressure, but be able to function optimally — from both the financial and practical perspectives — in the new context.

While all these areas are important, in Zurich’s case, housing appears to be a particular problem as more residents move into the canton.

With  tens of thousands of foreign nationals having settled in Zurich in the past few years, for instance, affordable housing had become scarcer — a situation that has continued to deteriorate and is expected to grow worse as more residents continue to arrive in the future.

READ ALSO: Zurich hit by affordable housing shortage amid record-high immigration

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