Daily street life

Wednesday around 4 pm, school was over, and the sun was shining. Guys were standing on the streets, kids were playing on the squares and mothers were walking with their prams. It was the first time that we noticed a light busyness on the streets of the Diamantbuurt. Later that day, a street coach told us that warm weather causes a lively, but at the same time a tense atmosphere in the neighborhood. Especially on the big squares there were many people around. We situated ourselves mainly on those places and observed the street life of the Diamantbuurt. 
  On big squares as the Smaragdplein and the Hendrik de Keijserplein many kids around the age of 12

Hendrick de Keijserplein

were playing soccer, mostly boys. Around those soccer fields some younger children, boys and girls, were playing different games. The squares are a good place for those kids to play because there is no traffic that can bother them, and at the same time, the Smaragdplein is surrounded by institutions meant for children. For example, there is a day care provider for children called De Kleine Wereld, where they can walk in and out whenever they want.

        Besides children, many people are walking calmly over the squares. Some men and women seem to enjoy the nice weather, have a little chat with passersby and slowly walk further. It looks like they know that those squares are the places where they can run into people they know and can have a chat with.

According to Danish architect Jan Gehl those areas can be seen as an outdoor place with a high quality since the good physical conditions bring people together. It became an environment where a ‘broad spectrum of human activities is possible.’ It invites people to ‘stop, sit, eat, play, and so on.’ People who live in the neighborhood know that those squares are places where people come together and where they have some social interaction.

Tensions
The Diamantbuurt has had a bad reputation ever since a journalist laid his eyes on a specific conflict in the neighborhood which he employed in order to have a ‘juicy’ story in the newspaper. Sociologist Anouk de Koning, whom we have introduced in a previous post, questioned the journalist’s approach and reckoned that in his story many voices remained unheard. She qualitatively investigated the neighborhood and found opposed results. Many residents showed contentedness about the neighborhood and it was not as much of a war-zone as the newspapers had made it seem. However, authority still clings on to the idea that the Diamantbuurt is prone to tension. Despite it having decreased over the past few years, different parties hold on to the idea that the area demands close monitoring. To what extent it is indeed necessary, is beyond our judgment: only extensive research might be able to show. However, our own observations and spontaneous interviews can provide us with clues.
First of all it is important to establish criteria which will provide the framework for research and expose the factors which create tension. Tension is most likely to arise in spaces where different actors converge. Therefore, our focal point will be street corners and public squares. Before we are able to analyze these, we will give a brief outlay of the area.

The Diamantbuurt is a densely concentrated block of predominantly social housing (in the past few years gradually turning into privately owned housing). Recreation in the area is rather limited and only a few neglectable patches of green adorn the neighborhood. These are not very accessible because they are fenced and merely seem to have a decorative function. If a resident wants to sit down and enjoy the outdoors, he or she has to turn to the nearby Sarphatipark. Furthermore, there are two squares located in this neighborhood, one of them being notorious for serving as a breeding ground for young criminals. It is the Smaragdplein, a square which has been the site for media coverage ever since ‘the Bert and Marja affair’ of 2004 (see previous blog post). The other one is the Henrik de Keijserplein, which has been incorporated in the block since the Diamantbuurt’s expansion in 2005. It is these two squares which will be the focus of our attention in the following section.

The Smaragdplein is a square of considerable size which serves as a meeting point for children and teens from the neighborhood aged between roughly eight to twenty years old. A playground in the middle where one can play football makes it an attractive site. It is a vibrant spot inaccessible to cars and passers-by merely consist of pedestrians and cyclists. As we have mentioned before, camera surveillance was introduced in the periods of 2007-2008 and has been consistently in use from 2011 onwards. They are easy to spot and their presence is rather prominent, casting a shadow over the playground. They make the persons present feel very aware of their visibility. Consequently a disciplinary mechanism is set in motion: one tones down one’s behaviour and makes sure he or she does not attract too much attention. Just based on our observations we cannot conclude that the children and teens necessarily suppress any outgoing behaviour. However, we did that notice that when a patrolling police officer passed by on his bike the small crowd of children present were immediately silenced. Even though they were not involved in any illegal or even obnoxious activities, they felt the need to retreat and make themselves invisible during the officer’s passing. We can therefore conclude that the famous notion of the “panoptical regime” by Michel Foucault seems highly applicable to this square. Monitoring and observing thus leads to regulation and disciplining one’s behaviour. A question arising is whether these kids have come to internalize this behaviour of making themselves ‘invisible’ due to the structural circumstances they are in and what the consequences are in the long run. This however, is material for further research.

Another pressing force which artificially regulates the situation are the street coaches. Reports run by the municipality show a low level of effectiveness (see previous blog post on policies) due to insecure attitudes. However, our small-scaled ‘fieldwork’ revealed the opposite. As we were observing on the edge of the Smaragdplein, we noticed a group of five young men dressed in the typical red ‘uniform’ indicating

Picture by: Stichting Aanpak Overlast Amsterdam

they were street coaches. We approached them and asked if we could ask them a few questions.
        The street coaches emphasized that their role in the neighbourhood is a crucial one since there are still some people who often make trouble. Those street coaches go to their ‘hotspots’, which are the places where most tensioned interaction and crime takes place. They discover those places themselves by walking around, talking to the people and observing what is going on. Those hotspots are not always fixed, since the ‘criminals’ know where they are watched most. For example, the Smaragdplein was always a place where there was trouble between boys, but since there is a lot of policemen walking around and security cameras they moved to other places. 
      According to the street coaches the troublemakers are often men between the ages of twenty to thirty. Especially when the weather is nice, those guys come out of their houses and tensions rise easily. Contrary to this generation, the younger boys that play soccer with each other are very different they say; they do not

Cameras in the Diamantbuurt

make trouble. The fact that the street coaches make a profile of almost every kid they see in the streets, those kids can feel the social control. Social control is one of the main preventions of crime; it is a mechanism ‘used to regulate the conduct of people who are seen as deviant, criminal, worrying or troublesome in some way by others’, as Martin Innes, professor in the school of social sciences explains in his book Understanding Social Control: Crime and Social Order in Late Modernity (2003). The need for social control comes from the fear of crime. The creation of more social control in the Diamantbuurt by placing more security was a reaction on the fear that was partly created by the ‘Bert and Marja affair’. Nowadays, the Diamantbuurt seems a peaceful area where people make good use of the environment and enjoy it.

Literature

Gehl, J.
2011 Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Washington: Island Press.

Innes, M.
2003 Understanding Social Control: Crime and Social Order in Late Modernity. Glasgow: Bell & Bain.

Nurturing a new middle class

Processes of gentrification can be found in a lot of different districts of Amsterdam. The Diamantbuurt has also caught the attention of the urban policy makers who aim to produce ‘liveable neighborhoods’. The notion of ‘liveability’ overall relates to the social economic composition of the neighborhood’s residents (van Gent 2012: 506). These policies regularly contain the pro-active insertion of middle-income households in low-income areas. As mentioned in the previous blog post concerning the history of The Diamantbuurt, the Diamantbuurt arose as a working class neighborhood and has only quite recently become an exclusive, and very popular, neighborhood for young urban professionals (YUP). The Diamantbuurt is a nice example of this upcoming gentrification; you can find an obvious increase in the amenities and services associated with middle-class taste, like trendy bars, restaurants, galleries, and exclusive stores. The agency for investigation and statistics (2012) tells us that there are 52 shops in the neighborhood with a combined surface of 2.208 m².

     The Van Wou straat, the main street that crosses the Diamantbuurt and divides it in two parts, is actually very representative for the district. In this street you will find a nice mix of yuppie restaurants, stores, shops and ‘oriental’ food stores. Whereas in the Pijp, the neighboring district of the Diamantbuurt, gentrification is almost completed, in the Diamantbuurt you can still find this diversity that Amsterdam is famous for.

Food store STACH

 An example of a store associated with middle- class taste is food store STACH. It is a delicacy-store, boutique-like, that sells organic products, healthy take away meals and you can also have coffee and lunch inside. On its website the store is promoted and portrayed as a food store with seasonal specials, all the food is fresh and comes from different regional suppliers, personal attention for the customers, and has, remarkably in this diverse area, only white ‘yuppie’ customers on its pictures. The target group contains ‘people who love healthy and tasty food but are too busy or just don’t feel like cooking’1. In other words, especially for ‘yuppies’. It is interesting to see how these concepts of healthy organic food stores increase in Amsterdam, where ‘yuppies’ can differentiate themselves from the masses.

      Another place for yuppies and students on the Van Wou Street is ‘De Stadskantine’. Literally

Stadskantine

translated it means ‘the city cafeteria’. It is a certain kind of business that is very popular at the moment: a place where you can eat and drink while working on your laptop or reading a book. The meals are not expensive, they change daily and the used products are all fresh 2. The target group therefore contains students and yuppies who like to work there in the afternoons. And also the people who do not feel like cooking in the evenings and want to go for a quick meal, and who like the idea of a having a ‘home made meal’. The design of the cafeteria is light, with a lot of glass, and it feels like an informal environment. This makes the place more accessible in the way that it feels less of an effort to come over and have a meal. The biggest difference between a cafeteria like this and a restaurant is probably that it is normal to have a meal or a coffee on your own.

Large 'Italian table in Spaghetteria

     The amenities for middle class taste are still increasing, as the restaurant Spaghetteria opened its doors only in February 2012.They call themselves a ‘pasta bar’, and promote their home made, fresh pasta made of organic flour3. This Yuppie place doesn’t have separate tables but just one large ‘Italian’ table where everybody can sit together like a big family. 

 

Underneath this picture you can see a Turkish food store, a totally different type of store than the stores mentioned above. In the Van Wou street you can see these contrasting cultures come together in this and divide two areas at the same time. The immigrant side versus the yuppie side.  These upcoming yuppie places give a fascinating diversity in the shopping landscape. On the one hand you have these posh restaurant Pekelhaaring, the Stadskantine, Spaghetteria and Stach. On the other hand you will also see a lot of Dönerplaces, Turkish supermarkets, pizzerias and other immigrant owned consumption sights. 

Turkish Food Store

 

What makes this interesting is that although the gentrification process is still going on, there are still quite a few stores and places which seem to survive. One of these shops is the long lasting Turkish supermarket Genco, situated on the corner of the van Wou and the Tolstraat. Several residents of the area pointed out this grocery store as a ‘pleasant shop with nice products and a friendly, helpful staff’. According to an article in The Volkskrant ( March 15th, 2005). Genco Supermarket was established on this same corner in 1966 by Mustafa Genco. Mustafa Genco was a working migrant who came to Amsterdam to escape the poverty in the Turkish town of Gaziantep. After being badly treated by several bosses Mustafa decided to never work for a boss again. He then started the grocery store and moved his wife and kids from Turkey to join him here in Amsterdam. He needed the help of his family to be ahead of the competition that started appearing over the years.

Genco Versmarkt

Since Genco is a family business many family members worked there to benefit the family, by benefit the family I mean they didn’t earn wages. Mustafa started as a small butcher to sell meat slaughtered by Islamic rules to the fast growing group of Turkish working migrants streaming into the Netherlands. This was a very clever choice. Today the Genco imperium consists of several grocery stores like the one in the van Woustraat as well as a hip restaurant/bar in the east part of Amsterdam. The resaurant has the same logo despite not having a business agreement with the grocery store. But, the owners are family and would most likely help each other out when in need. Just like the family helped out when starting the business.

It might be surprising that some residents mentioned Genco as a pleasant place to do the daily shopping in this exclusive neighborhood. But ever since the Mediterranean kitchen becamepopular in Holland, the Dutch costumers also found their way over to Genco for these products. If there is one thing yuppies like, it must be being ‘multicultural’ and ‘tolerant’. Helping the suspected less fortunate and interacting with former migrant families grants the yup social prestige. This is exactly the reason why besides hip coffee places, also the Turkish owned restaurants and shops are doing very well in this area.

Abert Cuyp market: the social mix that is left in the Pijp

There is no outdoor market in the Diamantbuurt itself, but the Albert Cuyp market in the Pijp, the neighboring district, provides an important service for the residents of the area. Although the Pijp is known to be a gentrified area, the Albert Cuyp market still socially mixed. A lot of migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan have their stalls on the market with cosmetics and clothing. The fruit and vegetables stalls are mainly owned by Dutch people, born and raised in Amsterdam. Then there are always a few stalls of people to promote new products, like handy kitchen tools. A stall costs in total around 35 euros daily. There is a waiting list to have your stall on the market, and you have to have a permit.

The store on the market that sells plants is a family owned business; it is called ‘de Plantenmarkt’. They have had their store since 1954, and it still goes really well. Their main customers are ‘dagjesmensen’, visitors and tourist who come just for a day to the Albert Cuyp market, and people (in their words), who are ‘bored’. When I asked them what they meant by that, they explained that a lot of old people from the area pass by, just to make a walk, and the ‘richer kind’ who ‘have nothing else to do’. When I asked them if they thought they had a lot of customers from the Diamantbuurt, they answered that ‘those immigrants will probably go to the Dappermarkt, as that market is even cheaper’. This quote again proves that the image of the Diamantbuurt has not changed, and I am sure that they meant the ‘old’ Diamantbuurt. There is an area that has been ‘added’ to the Diamantbuurt in 2005. The residents of this part still call their neighborhood ‘the pijp’, as they don’t want to belong to the bad image of the Diamantbuurt. The truth is that a lot of people from this side of the Van Wou straat do come to the Albert Cuyp market. But they are not considered as the residents of the Diamantbuurt.

Cited literature:

van Gent, W.P.C

2013 Neoliberalization, Housing Institutions an Variegated Gentrification: How the

‘Third Wave’ Broke in Amsterdam. International Journal of Urban and Regional

Research. (37)2 : 503 - 522.