On a sunny spring day, there’s little more pleasant than nabbing a bench and taking your lunch outside, away from florescent lights and gray cubicle walls. But when there’s mud on the seat from someone’s shoes, this simple pleasure can turn into a hassle really quickly. That’s precisely what has prompted the mayor of Eppelheim, Germany to invent a new type of bench for teenagers who wouldn’t sit on the seat portion of normal benches.
That’s right. Rather than crack down on these kids and try to enforce stricter punishments, Mayor Dieter Moerlein decided to accommodate them and give them a place to sit, while freeing up conventional benches for his other constituents.
Basically what he’s done is taken the seat and set it along the bench’s top-line, where teenagers were commonly settling, leaving the space normally reserved for the seat slatted to allow for the run-off of mud, water, and other nastiness.
The first of the new benches was installed last week, and they’re already a hit.
Mayor Moerlein calls the new benches “no-interest” benches. He’s dubbed them that because teens have “no interest in following etiquette. They all sit on the new benches like sparrows on a branch.”
There’s no word on whether the little sparrows‘ perch-time will be regulated in Eppelheim, like it is in China, but it’s doubtful.
Image Credit: Reuters/Alex Domanski
Tags: no-interest benches, German benches, German Mayor invents new bench for teens, German Mayor puts seat on top of bench, Eppelheim Germany, Dieter Moerlein, unusual seating, unusual benches
