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Arrival cities: the need for precision
In the winter of 2015 the City Builder Book Club, an online book club about cities, is reading Doug Saunders’ award-winning best-seller Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World. An interesting book about migration to urban centers around the globe with illuminations on all sorts of paths, policies, and people. I was invited to contribute a short response on chapter 10 ('Arriving in style') about migrant neighborhoods in the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Bangl…

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The Other Story
Some districts of a city have a national reputation. ‘De jordaan’ in Amsterdam has always been a synonym for popular humour and sociability. No red-light district enjoyed for decades its reputation as much as ‘Katendrecht’ in Rotterdam. And no working-class district enjoyed its reputation as much as the ‘Schilderwijk’ in The Hague, with its street rows and scuffles during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. It is no different in foreign countries. Think, for example, of the French suburbs, the Lon…

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