Woophy - Death of a neighbourhood

Forum < The Best of Woophy < Death of a neighbourhood

Author	Message
Akbar Member	# Posted: 14 Sep 06 19:09 Reply Every big city wants to renew itself and every "social" housing foundation wants to built new houses. They seldom ask the people what they want. You have a nice old house and you want to stay there?. Impossible!! How can you like that old hovel. It's nog good for you to live there. We are going to brake down your old neighbourhood and built a new one. And offcourse you can come back in a new, to expensive, house. Then one by one, people are forced to leave and go to a "temporary" house in another paqrt of town. As soon as a house is empty windows and doors are shut down with wooden panels to prevent squatters coming in. It takes a long time before every resident has found another home. To make everything nicer for those that still live there an art collective together with children paints the panels. Cheering up the neighboorhood it is called ???? When you still live there, you have a really nice view: As soon as a whole block is empty demolition starts: Although everything is shut down, homeless en junkies manage to brake things open. So everyday the fire brigade comes to control those houses of which the panels have been destroyed: From a distance other people who were so lucky to spent the night in a nearby homeless asylum, are observing everything. In a couple of years there will be a new, very nice ?? neighbourhood. And on locations at the outskirts of the city they're allready building the ghetto's of the future.
John Melskens Member	# Posted: 14 Sep 06 19:45 Reply Tell that to the people when there will be elections in a month or two. Tell that to the politicians and the civil servants who know it what is best for the people. I saw something on the news today about a politician who talked about "the knowledge economy". Well, what do THEY know? What do they know about what the people want? Good that you showed these pictures and told this story, Akbar. And I know this doesn't happen in The Hague alone. It happens in towns all over the world. (And in Amsterdam North too: they are going to build two new neighberhoods (3500 houses) instead of the old houses. Yes, the people who live there now can come back to the new houses, when they are finished. But, as you said Akbar, they can not afford the new houses.
Akbar Member	# Posted: 14 Sep 06 20:09 Reply I totally agree with you John. After making these pics I felt really sick.
de stilte Member	# Posted: 14 Sep 06 20:28 Reply it is a sad story, and yes it happens all over the world. Now I see your pictures akbar I feel a bit of regrets that I didn't notice the same thing happened overhere and I didn't shoot some pictures of that old neighbourhood.........if you can remember the advertisements of "Bolletje" on TV, the man on the bike who's going home and his wife was trowing his stuff out of the window........that neighbourhood has gone............:(.......
Hermine O. Member	# Posted: 14 Sep 06 20:31 Reply I really can imagine that, Akbar! It's a great serie with very nice pictures of a really sad topic. Good to see and read the story! I do hope they will take account of the people who lived there, so they can come back to 'their' houses and still can afford it.
Marcel Vroone Member	# Posted: 14 Sep 06 21:22 Reply Good but sad topic Akbar. It's something going on in every big city i guess. Bringing down the nice old buildings and putting back the ugly and expensive new ones. I feel sorry for the people with the small budgets, forced to move and hopefully not to another old house, that that have to leave for some other renovation plan. They did the samething in Amsterdam Osdorp too.
ortho158 Member	# Posted: 15 Sep 06 12:09 Reply Sad story indeed. Thanks for telling it, Akbar.
Bogers Member	# Posted: 16 Sep 06 08:01 Reply Thank you Akbar for this good report!
Dieuwertje Member	# Posted: 16 Sep 06 13:41 Reply Akbar you made a very good real-life report. It tells us that only money count at this times and sad enough it's the same all over the world.
Phantine Member	# Posted: 21 Sep 06 09:42 Reply Thanks Akbar for the pictures. I study urban planning & design, therefor i am also really interested in the subject. The sad thing with planning is that the wrong people make decisions about it. I really like your pictures, because they are so true!! And sadly it is also true that some of the people who lived there won't come back, because they can't pay the new rents. Don't know this project, but most of the time the lower incomes in a mixed neighbourhood have a better chance of getting a bigger income than in a neighbourhood with only low incomes. I guess that is what the city The Hague wants to do. But it is still sad, from what i see now.. the buildings still look great!!!!
scarlet Member	# Posted: 28 Sep 06 01:27 Reply Akbar, This is public housing in my town, built in the 1970s. The people that live there don't like it at all, and who can blame them? Directly across the street is this well-preserved classic New England house from 1830. It's a museum now. I know where I'd rather live!
Akbar Member	# Posted: 28 Sep 06 07:33 Reply Hi Scarlet, I'd prefer the New England house too, though it's quite big for me alone. Maybe I'd invite some friends to live there with me. I live in an apartment building. Fortunately much smaller then the one on your pic. At the front side it doesn't look very nice and it is located in a beautiful 100 years old neighbourhood with beautiful old houses and shops. Quite often in Art Deco style. At the backside however, I have a great view. My series "Spying at the neighbours" was made from my balcony (3rd floor) and it's the same for my pics of the Peacepalace tower and most of my sunset/ clouds pics. Also it is only 10 minutes walking to the center of the city. From the fifties on lots of new neighbourhood were built all over Holland. Most of them looking like this (pics by Joris): Nowadays new, luxurious apartment building are built in the center of the city. Most of them are bought by singles and senior citicens. At the outskirts of the city new neighbourhoods are built for families. Houses look much better then those on Joris' pics, but 15, 20 years later those neighboorhouds will be the new dull parts of town where nothing nice happens and also a long way from the city center. Houses in thise new neighbourhoods look like this: by Joris by Erik I prefer the old neighboorhoud near the centre. greatings, Akbar
Akbar Member	# Posted: 28 Sep 06 07:42 Reply I forgot: here are some pics of streets in my neighboorhoud. my street: shoppingstreet:(lots of antiques shops) one of the courts in my street:
scarlet Member	# Posted: 28 Sep 06 15:27 - Edited by: scarlet Reply I live in an apartment, too, but it's in a house with one other apartment. This is very common here in the Boston area, two or three apartments in one house. Here's what it looks like. This is actually my neighbor's house across the street, but it's essentially identical to my own.