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 was taken serious and a lot of different voices were heard and different interest recognized. Over the years the residents were invited for countless public meetings and hearings. They could express their feelings about the different proposals and their opinions were taken into consideration. Nowadays all the written records of the meetings are stored away in archives. The question arises whether the participatory approach proved to be effective. Do the citizens have the idea that their input was taken serious?
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 allowed 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 housing association and the urban planners? The temporary intervention investigates the different perspectives and interests.
