As always it's important to get the thoughts of sports or movie stars before making any judgements.

According to German soccer star Toni Kroos, Germany is worse off which doesn't seem like a metric of success.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/07/germany-has-been-overwhelmed-by-migrants-says-toni-kroos/

He said he felt that Germany had become less secure since he left, and was now concerned his child would not come back “unharmed” from a night out alone.

Kroos told the Lanz & Precht podcast: “I think Germany is a great country and I’m happy to be here, but it’s not really the same country that it was 10 years ago when we left.”

But of course he hasn't lived there for 10 years so who knows what he's basing this on.

I live in a pretty liberal larger city and had a similar experience when the city was considering installing bike lanes on an arterial road. People love their parking. There is a sense of entitlement that someone should be able to drive door to door anywhere in the city. Honestly that was the way it used to be. The problem is partly having built a lifestyle that requires a large number of cars combined with not wanting anything to change. I've been a biker for a long time and recently bought an e-bike so I'm obviously biased but in a city, even one not designed for bikes, e-bikes are often a superior way to travel. Weather and needing one bike per person are the main problems. Can e-bikes reduce the number of cars in a given area and free up more parking so we can accommodate more bike infrastructure? Car share is another option I was a fan of and my city has seen those options come and go. A ubiquitous car share problem would help a lot. Not sure why those programs struggle so much.