Aangeharkt

What does it mean to be a neighbour in a city? How can we be in neighbourship to the humans, to the non-humans, to the green spaces, and to the trees? The development of Amsterdam-Noord brings up these questions as rapid urban development eats our green spaces in projects like 'Elzenhagen-Zuid: living in the garden of Amsterdam'. For this 'garden' around 3000 trees have been cut down to be replaced by tons of sand and concrete. The life in these new urban spaces is advertised through words like 'discovery', 'exploration', and 'hidden', suggesting that the new houses are not meant for those who already live in Noord and wouldn't need to 'discover' what they already know so well. What can the existing inhabitants of Noord do to welcome new neighbours, while protecting their old ones: the trees and all their inhabitants? How can their voices be heard in the midst of bureaucratic decision making processes and developers' money making schemes? How can the worth of green spaces be incorporated in how we look at urban growth, not as an afterthought, but as an urgent necessity in times of climate change, heat stress, drought or flooding, and extreme storms?