Public Policy in The Diamantbuurt

DIAMANTBUURT // FACILITIES 

 

The Diamantbuurt is mainly notorious for what the media calls ‘the terrorization of the neighborhood by youngsters of Moroccan descent’. Therefore, most policies are aimed at preventing this so called terrorism. However, different rapports show different results concerning the safety in the Diamantbuurt. The different facilities have the common goal of enhancing social cohesion, but whether this is necessary in the first place remains to be seen. Besides the municipality’s aims at promoting social cohesion we will also take a look at the facilities concerning transportation and accessibility. As will become clear, these two seem to be interconnected in a certain way.

The Diamantbuurt accomodates only two schools. One elementary school; the 9^th Montessori school the Scholekster and one high school; the Berlage Lyceum. Both of these schools are situated in the new Diamantbuurt. An interesting fact is that many residents of the neighborhood choose to put their children to school in other areas of Amsterdam

The main facilities in the Diamantbuurt are concentrated around the Diamantstraat, the epicenter of the neighborhood. The Cinetol building is host to a public library. The former Bathhouse is used as a location for musicians to rehearse and one can practice some sports at the local playground on the Henrick de Keijserplein.

Former Bathhouse

Other facilities reveal more about how the municipality approaches the Diamantbuurt. Let us take a closer look at culture cluster Asscher and multifunctional center the Edelsteen. The most active of these two is the Edelsteen, which is a center where activities are organized by and for the neighborhood residents. According to a rapport by the municipality: all residents should feel welcome, be able to meet one another, feel stimulated to participate or organize activities. By getting into contact with other residents of the neighborhood the social cohesion of the Diamantbuurt should increase and generate a feeling of safety. However, a rapport by the Amsterdam Office for Research and Statistics of 2012 shows a different perspective on the Edelsteen: The building is somewhat concealed and doesn’t look very welcoming. [..] besides there are not enough people working there. The neighbourhood activities by and for the local residents are setting off rather mediocre. The building does not look very accessible because of the taken safety measures. Safety is the main issue in the Diamantbuurt as I will show further on in this article. An example of a project to increase neighbourhood cohesion was hosted in community centre the Edelsteen. This project was named ‘Calling, this is how you do it’ [bellen doe je zo] in 2011. Here local youth would teach the elderly how to use mobile phones.

Since initiatives were unsuccessful in the community centre there will be a reorganisation. The rapport is quite clear about the unsuccessful plans: due to the understaffed, closed character and concealed location it is suggested to assign a different programming to the Edelsteen. Preference goes out to child day care, health and or sports. The current activities can be replaced too [...]

The rapport is quite clear about their own vision on the unsuccessfulness of the municipality in creating neighborhood solidarity and cohesion. Although the Amsterdam Office for Research and Statistics show that the residents of the Diamantbuurt are quite comfortable and satisfied with their neighbourhood, the media has made the Diamantbuurt their prime example of a ‘terrorised’ neighbourhood by youth of Moroccan descent. Further research needs to explore why there is such disparity between the resident’s feelings towards the neighbourhood and the way the media represents it.

DIAMANTBUURT// TRANSPORTATION

Now let us move on to the subject of transportation and accessibility of the Diamantbuurt. Similar to most places in The Netherlands, the neighborhood is quite bike-friendly even though most places do not have separate bicycle paths. By this I mean that the cyclist has to cycle on the same road where the cars are driving with no separation between them. The main big street, Van Woustraat, is a street where there are many cars just as there are many cyclists. On this road there is also no separate cycle path but the side for the cyclists is set off by a broken white line as is shown in the picture below. This line marks the area for the cyclists. Both drivers and cyclists know this and conform to this rule. 

 

Van Woustraat: Picture taken from Google maps

Another important factor regarding the Diamantbuurt’s infrastructure concerns the secluded small streets that converge in the center of the Diamantbuurt, the Smaragdplein. One cannot enter this part by car, which makes the square prone to the loitering of youngsters who potentially practice illegal activities. Cycling or walking across the square can feel rather threatening for the architectural outline does not provide the cyclist or pedestrian with much choice of ‘escape’ than the narrow arch illustrated below. Some residents might experience similar feelings of discomfort.

Narrow Arch: Picture taken from Google maps

Picture taken from Google maps

Despite these narrow streets and alleys the residents of the Diamantbuurt have an excellent public transport connection to practically everywhere in Amsterdam, and beyond. Tram 3 on the Ceintuurbaan goes all the way from east to west Amsterdam, tram 4 brings its passengers from RAI station to Central Station and the Victorieplein is also a public transport hub. All these places are accessible by foot in less than 20 min from anywhere in the Diamantbuurt. If someone prefers the Amstelstation over the Central Station they would be glad that this station is even closer and shares many of the possibilities with the Amsterdam Central Station.

DIAMANTBUURT // POLICIES

As we have mentioned before, media often depicts the migrant youngsters as the evildoers of the neighbourhood. A story that illustrates this well is a couple named “Bert and Marja” that popped up in 2004 in the widely read national newspaper the Volkskrant. Bert and Marja were residents of the Diamanbuurt where they lived with their two young kids in a small but comfortable flat. However, outside their home they were being threatened, bullied and spit at on a daily basis by what seem to be second or third generation migrant youth from Moroccan descent. This escalated to the point that the couple desperately approached the newspaper to get them to report the incidents and highlight the issues at stake. Despite the reporting the couple ultimately was forced to move to a different part of town. This ‘failure’ formed the departure point of years of conflict coverage in the Diamantbuurt, expanding from the Volkskrant to the local newspapers such as the Parool. Responding to the media reports, policymaking regarding the Diamantbuurt began to revolve around the two key words: safety versus criminality (source: Amsterdam Office for Research and Statistics).

Nipping criminal activity among youth in the bud thus became the first focal point regarding taking preventive measures. It soon became clear that a gang of roughly twenty to fifty youngsters was operating within the block causing overall disturbance and anxiety among the residents. Local authority responded to this pressing issue by introducing a policy of camera surveillance which was in use for the periods of 2007-2008 and from 2011 onwards. Research shows that this intervention was indeed effective for incidents occurred less whilst the cameras were in use. However, local newspaper the Parool mentioned in July 2011 that despite the cameras level of contentment and feeling of safety among the residents kept dropping. A contradiction therefore seems to be at work here. The municipality furthermore stresses a ‘bottom-up’ approach, which entails intensive supervision of twelve year olds and under by so called street coaches. These patrol the neighbourhood and address youngsters who play outside late at night without attendance. They also pay visits to parents after reports of incidents. However, identifying who is responsible turns out to be rather challenging: parents are often not open to correction, which causes insecurity in the street coaches’ attitudes. Engaging youngsters with the elderly is a third measurement encouraged by the local authority. This is put into practice through projects such as Jong Helpt Oud, which entails teenagers doing chores for the elderly such as grocery shopping. This seems to be in line with the 2012 resolution to appoint schools to find ways to connect the youngsters to their neighbourhood.

However, an important footnote that needs to be placed here is that media coverage in the case of the Diamantbuurt has been the main catalyst for conducting certain policies. Urban planner and sociologist Anouk de Koning wrote a critical essay on this phenomenon describing the way the Diamantbuurt has become the ‘national symbol’ for Dutch discord (source: Het Lezen van de Stad, de Organisatie van Improvisatie). This we believe has a strong reifying effect, which we will elaborate on in next week’s blog post. 

SOURCES 

Huivesting van Maatschappelijke voorzieningen in stadsdeel zuid, gemeente Amsterdam 30 juni 2011.