I thought I’d take a moment this morning, since I have the time, and post a more lengthy note to our blog. It is, again, a dreary, damp morning. Yesterday, as you’ve seen, we visited the Bijlmer. During our roughly two hour walking tour it rained, got sunny, got windy, rained and was windy, got sunny, rained… you get the idea. I’m guessing it was right around 50 degrees. Yuck! But, Hans, our tour guide, was terrific.
It’s difficult to describe the Bijlmer in brief. Go here for more info! Though all of the renovations and new buildings won’t be complete for several years, it is now very much a revitalized community with residential, recreational, shopping, and business areas. The shopping areas contain many of the “regular” Dutch chains, but also places like the Palais de Fromage, an African fish and chicken shop, the Afro Beauty Centre, and services for those of Surinamese and Ghanaian descent, among others. I first visited the Bijlmer in 2002 and there have clearly been many positive changes since that time.
Originally, two of the goals of the area were to clearly separate residences from shopping, etc, and to have residences that were of mixed social classes. Of the many discoveries about social desires, one was that it really didn’t work to have everything so separated. In the renovation raised roads have been lowered, parking garages torn down, high rises renovated or razed… making the areas more seamlessly integrated.
One of the original goals, though, has been retained; to have housing for residents of a variety of social classes. As we stood at one grassy area, homes on the left – what we might describe as three story townhouses – were available for sale. Hans thought that they were currently selling for about 200,000 euro, or roughly US$250,000. This is cheap for the greater Amsterdam area, but expensive for the Bijlmer. But, on the other side was “social housing,” that is subsidized rental housing. You really couldn’t distinguish one from the other. Both were nice brick buildings in the simple, clean style of the Dutch.
I asked Hans how this seemed to work in the Netherlands, having one person pay so much and another in a similar home receive government subsidy. It seems to me that one of the challenges in the U.S., in the areas that have tried such housing, is that people aren’t too willing to pay for an expensive home only to have someone getting the same thing across the street for far less money and be of a very different (perceived) social class. His response was that it just isn’t an issue. There just isn’t a goal to have more than the next person and want to show it off. He did note that, of course those people exist - and they shop on the street behind our hotel – with its Cartier, Hugo Boss, Hilfiger, etc. – but it’s really not “the Dutch way.”
We also wandered through an open-air market with the biggest yams I’ve ever seen. Apparently they are shipped from Ghana to be sold at the market. The market, though small, had inexpensive clothing – many with “American” logos, fruit and vegetables, fabric, and even a traditional Dutch fish vendor, among other things.
As we walked, we also encountered a memorial. Some of you may remember a plane crash that occurred in the Netherlands in October, 2002. An El Al cargo plane went down, hitting one of the buildings. At least 43 people died, most of them residents of the apartments. We saw “the tree that has seen everything” and the flowers that people continue to leave in honor of those who died. There continues to be speculation as to what the plane really contained and assertions of a big cover-up.
All in all, even with the weather, it was a fascinating morning. I don’t know that the students realize it, but this is a place that has received worldwide attention for what they tried and continues to be the focus of attention for what they are trying to “fix.” At the least, our tour provided a glimpse of Amsterdam beyond the Museumplein and the Leidseplein! Hopefully, it also provoked some thought about our similarities and differences.
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