Weblog of Zef Hemel on regional planning
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Delicious liquorice
Read on CityMetric on 1 July 2015: There is a fierce debate going on in Great Britain about the future of its London airports. BAA wants to expand the capacity of Heathrow, west of London. The mayor of London, Mr. Johnson, is favoring the building of a new hub on an artificial island in the…
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Startup delta
Read in The Economist of 25 July 2015: > It’s called a ‘briefing’. Subject: Silicon Valley. In The Economist of 25 July the message was: “the tech boom may get bumpy, but it will not end in a repeat of the dotcom crash.” It was a description of how the Greater San Francisco region is…
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No progress
Seen on Dutch television on Sunday 16 August 2015: The Dutch landscape architect Adriaan Geuze (1960) was guest in last week’s edition of ‘Zomergasten’ (‘’Summer Guests’) on Dutch television. The long interview, inlivened by video and short films, took almost three hours. Geuze showed fragments of documentaries on the Oosterscheldewerken, the building of the Afsluitdijk,…
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Sleepwalkers
Read in Forum (VNO NCW magazine) of 20 August 2015: Bingo! Three in two days: first ‘Alle kaarten op Amsterdam?’ (‘Amsterdam only?’) in Forum, magazine of Dutch employers union VNO NCW, second, on saturday, the Vonk-special of de Volkskrant on ‘De verhipte stad’ (‘The kinky city’) and three: ‘Rotterdam is hot’ in the Amsterdam…
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Dark Sky City
Seen in De Pont in Tilburg, the Netherlands, on 6 August 2015: The exhibition on the American artist James Turrell in De Pont, Tilburg, was exciting. Thursday two weeks ago we visited the museum, but I have to admit I didn’t know his work when I entered the place. There were some four installations.…
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Loopy policy
Read in The Economist of 25 July 2015: Once people start living in cities, the fertility rate of women (a measure of births per woman) drops. This happens no matter where, no matter who, no matter how. A level of 2.1 is required to keep the population stable. In Seoul the fertility rate is…
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Highrise is coming
Read in Het Parool of 1 August 2015: So we spent a week in London. We booked an Airbnb in Hampstead Heath, London North. An excellent appartment, though rather small compared to Dutch standards. We met friends, all living in London now. Why did they chose for London? Because, they said, here are the…
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On tour
Seen in the Netherlands in August 2015: Because the Dutch Minister of Interior Affairs, Mr. Plasterk, wants us to consider the Netherlands “as one big city of 17 million people”, I decided to make a two-weeks tour in my own city, after having spent a full week in London. What a strange city Holland…
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Going for gold
Read in The Economist of 25 July 2015: Spent a week in London this summer with the whole family. On arriving at Gatwick airport I started reading the local newspapers. The title of an article in The Economist on the legacy of the London Olympic Games 2012 stroke me: ‘’Going for bronze’. Really just…
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Importance of a ping-pong table
Read this summer in London and on the beach: At the beginning of every summer, more or less round the month of July, correspondents and critics of newspapers and popular magazines always give personal lists of their favorite books. ‘These are the books I advise you to read.’ I love those lists. So that’s why…
Got any book recommendations?