TwoFools in Zürich

http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/index

Last night, a bang like a cannon shot accompanied by a sharp jolt and then a frisson of vibrating concrete shook us out of our late-night movie stupor. What the hell was that? Did a truck crash into the building? Maybe someone had smashed the front door with a battering ram? Neither scenario seemed likely.

Even though we come from earthquake country, the last thing that occurred to us was what had actually happened. At 11.45, a magnitude 4.2 quake (Erdbeben) hit between the Zugersee and Ägersee at a depth of either 30 km or 16 km, depending on whether you ask the Schweizerische Erdbebendienst (Swiss Seismological Service) or the USGS.

According to the earthquake-obsessed fool, it was actually two bangs, not one, and many residents reported the same on Earthquake-Report.com. Some reported that it felt like something big had run into their building, and some said it seemed like something had blown up nearby. A few residents reported a humming sound that preceded the quake, which seems fairly freaky to me. 

OK, a 4.2 doesn't sound like much if you're from California. But in Switzerland the quakes usually measure below magnitude 2. That's good because we're not really equipped for a real quake here. Buildings are constructed here to convey a sense of solidity, as in solid concrete. But concrete, with its limited elasticity, is not necessarily the best material for withstanding an earthquake. A wooden house is often a better place to hang out in a quake; wood absorbs and dissipates the energy. If you're not in a liquefcation zone and the house has proper sheer walls, you're in good shape, at least up to a pretty high magnitude.

I wasn't able to find anything definitive on the state of earthquake engineering in Switzerland. But we had no real damage in our building and none has been reported so far in the region. I mean, 4.2—no biggie.

I was all set to write a post on Friday about my renewed appreciation for Switzerland when the "activists" occupied the Razzia on Seefeldstrasse.

Still a fairly jolly scene at 11.45 on Friday, although extremely loud. The crowd got uglier as the night wore on.

A fig leaf of concern for the displaced former residents of Ledermann's Kino Razzia-Mainau House project dressed up the occupation, which consisted primarily of loud music and drinking––quite a lot of drinking going by the volume of supplies going in each morning and the sound of glass bottles breaking throughout the night.

From 22.00 until well after dawn each day, deep bass house music blasted out of the open doors of the theater and through the open windows and doors of the adjacent building on Mainaustrasse (they had been industriously removed by the activists). We could feel the vibration in our floors and our windows rattled as the music was cranked progressively higher through the night.  My favorite bit each morning was the slow, sonorous, deep bass chords that reverberated through the neighborhood starting at about 7.00.

Here's video we took at 4.30 this morning. Check out that distortion on the bass. Nice, right?

Apparently, the owner (Urs Ledermann) okay-ed the occupation early on Friday evening, and the police in turn said that they could not respond to noise complaints. I guess Urs carries a lot of weight with the city, since the police abandoned all concept of law enforcement on his say-so. I hope he's very happy with the results, since his property now looks more ghetto than Gold Coast.

Doesn't look like Urs won any fans among the activists.

Despite calls from us and many in the neighborhood, the only time we saw the police was about 9.00 on Saturday morning as they did a slow cruise by the scene.

People in this neighborhood had better not kid themselves. There are four more months until the scheduled start of demolition. Urs didn't lose any sleep this weekend, and he won't the next time this happens. And it will happen again.

Organize now to stop illegal parties at the Razzia. Contact Urs and let him know what you think of his illegal agreement to condone this party and deny the police access to his property.

urs.ledermann@ledermann.com
+41 44 396 15 85