Who is We?Who is We?

By mid-2021, three years after the introduction of the Environmental and Planning Act, all cities in the Netherlands must have a new environmental vision - a local translation of the new act. The complex issues - energy transitioning, the circular economy, ecology and social inequality - call for an integrated, inclusive approach to the city. This will be determined more by underlying values than by rules, with interpretations differing for each municipality. Thinking on the basis of values and frameworks is not new, but gains a fresh impetus with the new act.

On 26 March 2020, municipal thinkers and doers in the field of environmental vision met online to explore spatial and democratic possibilities and difficulties. Extracts from the discussion are published below. This Zoom meeting was moderated by Farid Tabarki of Studio Zeitgeist. The online meeting was held in place of the the symposium Polyphonic Cities, which had been scheduled at Het Nieuwe Instituut on the same date.

Participants:
Frank van den Beuken is an environmental vision content project manager for the City of Amsterdam
John de Ruiter is a Next City advisor for the City of Rotterdam
Irma Dekker is a quartermaster for the Municipality of Dongen
Ellen de Bonth is a community director for the Municipality of Dongen
Arjen Vedder is a spatial planner for the City of Zwolle
Martin Verwoest is an urban planning supervisor for the City of Leiden
Caroline Nevejan is Chief Science Officer for the City of Amsterdam

John de Ruiter: In Rotterdam, all kinds of transitions and changes are taking place. We've already formulated many core values during previous vision projects, but all the new developments, such as energy transitioning, mean that we need new labels. We've now identified perspectives, by which we mean, for example, circular, compact, productive and healthy perspectives. We'll continue to be flexible in our approach and we are constantly learning how to do that.

Frank van den Beuken: Making an environmental vision is a good exercise in integration. For the environmental vision Amsterdam 2050, we're working with ten core values and working out how we can balance being climate-neutral with being healthy, liveable and having good spatial quality, among other things. We do this by clarifying the tension and synergetic opportunities between the various values. There are large forces at play in the city and in space, and resources are limited. This means that choices need to be made about what values should be given priority and what this means in practice.

Martin Verwoest: In Leiden we already had a spatial development strategy, but it lacked a comprehensive approach. With insights from experts, the municipality started a conversation with its neighbours. Cooperation arose through trust in our four common values - beautiful, open, strong and complete.

Irma Ramackers: Dongen has defined the DNA of its municipality in five values - resourcefulness, a sense of initiative, being simply extraordinary, take care of each other, and warmth. These can serve as a framework for the environmental vision that Dongen has just started on, and how these are put into practice in a specific area is interesting. After all, resourcefulness can mean fewer rules, or less money, depending on the character of each area.

Ellen de Bonth: I'd like to add that Dongen - just like the province of Noord-Brabant - wants a broad, deep and round view - one with the broad participation of residents and entrepreneurs, with a deep dynamic beyond the here and now, and rounded by its different perspectives.

Arjen Vedder: In Zwolle, we consciously chose the question: what does Zwolle think is important? That's where the values come in. We wanted to make human capital the most important factor - meeting, connecting, innovating and maintaining an economic impulse. We're now entering the second phase to translate the 'what' into the 'where' - an area-focused elaboration. It sounds crazy in this time of coronavirus, but we want to use space more intensively, more multifunctionally, for meeting and for developing.

AV: It's of some value that you don't know what's coming at you just yet. The future is not predictable, but it is imaginable.

IR: Your environmental vision must therefore also be dynamic, because at a certain point people will think: hey, we've paid far too little attention to energy.

EB: In Dongen, together with the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, we've conducted a pilot project on sustainable development goals.

MV: We focused on people with a specific role, such as the bus driver or the GP. We asked them: how do you envision your surroundings in 2040, and how would you like local government to support you?

FB: In Amsterdam we use the term 'rooted urbanity'. We want to provide space for new urban developments in the city, while seeing how these can be more rooted in their area - be more location-specific, with local residents and entrepreneurs more involved. Students at the University of Amsterdam are currently doing thesis research into the degree of urbanity and rootedness that exists in a number of places in the city that have been developed over the past ten years.

JR: How do you do it together? The form hasn't really changed that much - you work interactively and involve as many relevant partners as possible. Before, one and one was two, then one and one had to become three, and now one and one has to stay one!

MV: The solutions are all demands for space. Health and energy transitioning always require a comprehensive vision of the physical living environment. Leiden has formulated starting points for this such as 'travel light' (work from trust and keep it light) and 'content-driven' (let the content determine the cooperation). An integrated approach is essential.

FB: The creative process of Amsterdam's environmental vision is linked to the agenda for the democratisation of the city that goes beyond participation. The municipal College of Mayor and Alderpersons wants to complement representative democracy with more ownership and a bigger say for neighbourhoods. The environmental vision supports this democratisation movement by formulating principles for the making of the city of Amsterdam, and by co-producing the vision with a growing narrative.

EB: In the past, you used to involve several disciplines in the development of a vision, but now, as a government, you supply a semi-finished product and then have to go public with it, for example through social media.

JR: In Rotterdam, as many as 100 to 150 people were involved, from doctors to ecologists.

EB: The Environment and Planning Act requires a different type of leadership. You shouldn't want to control the future, but to make it possible. Ask the council, province, and other stakeholders for room to learn and experiment, and if you agree on what you really want to protect, such as health and heritage, you can colour outside the lines and do things differently.

AV: You can let the municipality determine the scope for uncertainty.

JR: We do a lot of pilots around Next City, searching for new insights and data in a structured way.

MV: _Frappez toujours _(always knock)! Keep communicating and look at people's lifestyles - one likes a letter, another prefers an app. We've created narratives for the city that continue to run, and if the conversation is more difficult, you can always return to togetherness with the help of this narrative. Above all, make the conversation concrete. Put your cards on the table and ask: what do you want to change in your own living environment?

At the end of the conversation, Caroline Nevejan (among others) was given the floor to respond to what had been said (and not said).

CN: Apart from grief and disruption, this crisis will hopefully also bring us necessary insights. In that sense, the corona crisis can be a great gift: it is a gentle exercise for the climate crisis that is emerging, so it's essential to learn from it. The big question is, how are we going to use people's knowledge of these values for survival? If people can feel what's really important, they'll share these values more often, and, of course, we have to gather all of that knowledge.

FB: Perhaps collective resilience is an important concept if we want to become more crisis-proof. People can solve a lot together, and the government can be supportive.

Farid Tabarki: If the crisis we are in now has taught the independent individual one thing, it is that complete independence is an illusion, and that we are more dependent on each other than we thought. Without a context, no one is anyone; we look for our unique meaning within the contexts in which we live. No matter how a municipality approaches the creation of an environmental vision, they all seem to have that in common.

Text: Farid Tabarki and Rindert de Groot

https://mijnomgevingsvisie.nl/
https://issuu.com/gemeenteamsterdam/docs/planamsterdam-04-2019www/20
http://trendrede.nl