Kreuzberg-Kottbusser Tor

:Kottbusser Tor is the centre of Kreuzberg's SO36 district. This traffic square is hemmed in on all eight sides by social housing blocks; the main roads extend from here outwards like the arms of an octopus. The neighbourhood is occupied by cheap, crumbling apartments, kebab shops, 24-hour florists, ethnic businesses, dive bars, and gay clubs. The locals call it “Kotti”—a haven for punks, hipsters, and junkies. Crime is common and not even a cause for alarm. Vagrants and the homeless sleep on street corners. Gangs of kids roam around late at night, harassing passerbys for spare change. 
===Neue Kreuzberger Zentrum===
These mass-housing projects are a maze of back alleys and side streets, zigzagging their way around crumbling blocks ten to twenty storeys high. The buildings have been constructed quickly and cheaply and it shows. Their facades are covered in exposed wiring and satellite dishes. Public utilities are barely maintained; the sidewalks are littered with cigarette butts and scraps of paper. The graffiti here is stark and ugly—mostly chickenscratch, racial sentiments, and obscene symbols.
A typical apartment block would have a courtyard in the middle, originally meant as a play space for children but filled with trash and scrap metal. Sometimes small businesses and entertainment venues operate on the ground floor. A typical room would consist of nothing more than the bare necessities. A bathroom, a kitchen, a bed—and sometimes not even. The windows never let in much light, and the size is small enough to be suffocating.
===SO36===
:This small, dingy club is the cradle of Berlin's punk rock culture. The entrance on the ground floor doesn't bear anything more than the sign of “SO36”. Thumping, raucous music blares through here at all hours of the night. There is usually a line waiting to get in, of kids dressed in their Sunday's best—leather jackets, spiked collars, and multi-coloured mohawks.
:The inside of the club is cramped and never well-lit. There is a stage for performing artists—from unknown "so cool you've never heard of it" acts to international rockstars like David Bowie and Iggy Pop. The strobe lights pump out flashes at 20 Hz per second. At the bar, cheap drinks are poured down dirty glasses and no one cares to look at what they're drinking.
===U-Bahnhof Kottbusser Tor===
The Kottbusser Tor station has an overhead crossing and an underground platform. The overhead portion is made of steel and glass, with an elongated design and a long, green roof. This station is a draw for criminals, drug dealers, vagrants, and the homeless. Every inch of the wall of the underground platform is covered by graffiti. It is not uncommon to find junkies passed out on the street or the homeless taking up semi-permanent residence in one of the dark recesses of the platform.
Category:Kreuzberg