UITSPRAAKRONDE
This project deals with the phenomenon of citizen participation in urban planning and strategies. We focused on a neighborhood in the city of Leeuwarden in the North of the Netherlands called the ‘Vrijheidswijk’, that is notorious for its violence, drug abuse and broad range of other social problems. About 15 years ago, the Leeuwarden city council started with the redevelopment of this particular area. The first step in this process was to change the old name, ‘Lekkumerend’ to ‘Vrijheidwijk’ (liberty district). It was believed that this would positively influence the negative image of the neighborhood. Changing its name didn’t prove to be very effective and for several consecutive years the neighborhood ranked among the poorest of the Netherlands. Around the year 2000, the actual renovation of the neighborhood began. With new governmental support, the city council started the demolition of large sections of the old neighborhood to make room for new apartments. By now, all the gentrification proposals are nearly realized.
During this urban renewal process, the importance of citizen participation within urban strategies grew and a lot of different voices were heard and different interest were recognized. The residents were invited for public meetings/hearings where they were given the opportunity to express their feelings about the different proposals. In the project ‘uitspraakronde’ we collected different quotes from the meetings, interviews and hearings that took place during the whole process. We presented these quotes within the neighborhood in order to stimulate reflection upon the transformation of the area. We placed the quotes on a billboard in the center of the neighborhood and talked with its residents about the changes and their involvement in the democratic process. Every text was shown for half a hour after that we began working on the following text.
This testsituation allows us to develop a better understanding of the interaction between policies and citizens. How is the communication organized between the residents and the other interested parties: the municipality, the project developers, the urban planners and the architects? The temporary intervention investigates the different perspectives and interests, considering the urban gentrification process. What are the results of the redevelopment? Did the participatory approach proved to be effective? Did the citizens have the idea that their input was taken serious?
