Weblog of Zef Hemel on regional planning
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Postmetropolitan University
Read in De Omslag of 2015:
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Bad news
Read in NRC Handelsblad of 1 December 2015: There was some news on the future last week. Bad news. Hope you didn’t read it. In ‘The Netherlands will look like this in the future’, NRC Handelsblad reported on a scenario study of the Netherlands in the year 2050. The two long term scenario’s were made…
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Immigrant city
Seen at the IDFA, Amsterdam, on 29 November 2015: ‘In Jackson Heighs’, the new documentary of Frederic Wiseman, opens with muslims praying in mosques, garages, sheds. Welcome to Queens, New York. On the last day of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2015 I went to see the three-hour movie in a cinema at the…
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Crisis, what crisis?
Read in The Economist of 7 November 2015: Yesterday evening I had to give a short presentation in Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam, on ‘Growing cities, shrinking regions’ (Groeiende steden, krimpende regio’s). The meeting was organized by the journalist Floor Milikowski of De Groene Amsterdammer on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the…
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What is to be done?
Read in ‘The Christal Palace’ (2005) of Peter Sloterdijk: Peter Sloterdijk’s ‘In the World Interior of Capital’ (Het Kristalpaleis) is a must read, especially at this very moment, after the events in ‘Paris’ and ‘Brussels’. Sloterdijk’s philosophy of globalization is based on the story of Christal Palace in London, 1851, the first World Exhibition. The…
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A beautiful city
Read in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (1859) of Charles Dickens: Have you read all those newspapers publishing on Paris this weekend? On all those killings, violence in the streets, terrorism, islam. Can’t get enough? I prefer rereading Charles Dickens. Dickens published his great novel on the French revolution in 1859. His own life…
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Sick building syndrome
Read in Het Parool of 7 October 2015: Foreign investors are buying pied-a-terres, luxury shopping malls, dwellings, office space on a big scale in Amsterdam. The financial crisis seems to be passé. Buying real estate is becoming more and more attractive. The mayor of Amsterdam wants a real estate fund that will finance the…
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Looking backward
Heard in Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam, on 27 October 2015: The 740th anniversary of Amsterdam was celebrated this year in Pakhuis de Zwijger, on 27 October. Another ten years to go. Then the city will celebrate its 750 anniversary. What should we add to the city? What’s still missing? A selection of speakers was asked…
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Bombing does not help
Seen in the Opera house, Amsterdam, on Friday 13 November 2015: Strange. Very strange indeed. On Friday night, while we were enjoying ‘Dialogues des Carmélites’ of Francis Poulenc at the Amsterdam Opera and were captured by the killing of all those nuns in revolutionary Paris by the mob’s guillotine – the end scene of…
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The End of Biking
Read in Het Parool of 2 June 2014: The era of Amsterdam as a great city for biking is coming to an end. After twenty years of growth we will no longer cycle that much. Really a pity. The miraculous growth of biking in the Dutch capital was due to many things: high parking…
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