For many Berliners. election day was less about a hard-to-understand parliament in distant Strasbourg and more about a huge field in the middle of Berlin. Roughly the size of New York's Central Park, but round, Tempelhof was once a busy airport. As the most central of the landing fields the American and British "raisin bombers" used during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, it always held a special place in Berliners' hearts. After a failed referendum in 2008 to keep it open, it became a park. Its two runways are Berlin's best place for windskating (surfing, but on skateboards). But Berlin also needs more housing. Though its rents are still below those of Munich or Hamburg, they have been rising as some 40,000 people a year arrive in search of the capital's excitement and jobs. So Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, supported a plan to build about 4,700 flats and a library along the edges, while still preserving most of the field as a playground.
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