Erik Bos

Yesterday (25th of October), ‘The State of the City’ (Staat van de Stad) took place in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, organised by Pakhuis De Zwijger. During this evening, several experts and lecturers shared their vision on the current state of Amsterdam. How does Amsterdam develop? Is Amsterdam really becoming busier? Which challenges do we face? And how can we deal with these challenges? A short summary.

Collaborate with other cities

First of all, the mayor of Amsterdam Eberhard van der Laan explained that we all perceive that the city becomes busier. ‘You can see it with your eyes. And so do the facts. Annually, 10.000 people want to move to Amsterdam and there is a growth of companies (120 per year) that want to settle in Amsterdam. In the past five years, 8000 new hotels are created in Amsterdam. So yes, it becomes busier in the city. But this is caused by the success of Amsterdam. However, we should really take action to solve the related problems. And it is urgent! For instance: what are we going to do when the growing middle classes of China and India (3.000.000 people) also wants to visit Amsterdam in the coming decades?! Since Amsterdam is not the only city who faces this problem, we should work together with for instance Berlin and Paris. And we should also look to other cities in the Netherlands. Why not encourage tourists to stay in Rotterdam in a hotel and visit the Mauritshuis in The Hague instead of the Rijksmuseum? But, one thing is very important to keep in mind by looking to these solutions: Amsterdam must stay/be the city of the citizens of Amsterdam’’!

Migration is essential for a city

Philippe Legrain from the UK and political economist, touched upon migration to Amsterdam. ‘’Amsterdam will be one of the centres of the new global economy. This attracts people from all over the world to live and work in Amsterdam. Instead of seeing these migrants as the cause of problems like rising house prices, you can also look to their added value. They bring skilled labour and they are doing jobs which Dutch people do not want to do (anymore). Migration is essential for a city. For every job a migrant has, he/she creates another! Learn to live together in diversity’!

Keep on experimenting

Rens van Tilburg explained the attractiveness and economic trends of Amsterdam. Especially the physical and digital connectivity of Amsterdam are important reasons why companies and people want to come to Amsterdam. However, the view on the economy is changing. A growing part of the citizens perceives that the economy is growing, but they do not have the feeling they take advantage out of it. The pie is growing, but people do not get a bigger part. And this leads to a decline of welfare and happiness. People do not accept the trend of a higher range between rich and poor people, also in Amsterdam. How can we solve this? Keep on investing in all classes of society! And: Keep on experimenting. Trial and error. The 21st century will be the century of the city!

Some other interesting quotes

> ‘Amsterdam is a privileged city, but this also means you have responsibilities’ – Domenica Ghidei Biidu
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> ‘In Amsterdam, there are less unemployed lower educated people than unemployed higher educated people’ – Paul de Beer
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> ‘Social Capital is one of the most important pillars of the economy’ – Rens van Tilburg
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> ‘The population density of Amsterdam is only a quarter of Paris, and a third of Barcelona. Is it really that busy?’ – Philippe Legrain
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> ‘Social housing is essential for a city to ensure diversity’ – Philippe Legrain
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> ‘We should avoid that all local supermarkets in the neighborhoods are replaced by souvenir shops and waffle or cheese shops’ – Mayor Eberhard van der Laan
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> ‘Mercy, one of the historical pillars of the city of Amsterdam, should always be kept in mind. Then, Amsterdam will become a Shining City on a Hill, but then in the Polder’ – Rens van Tilburg
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> 'The city of Amsterdam should be inclusive'! - Gloria Dekker

There were much more interesting quotes and speeches, this is just a selection.

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We selected 5 interesting quotes from the past weeks on the online community of Amsterdam Smart City. Did you miss one of them? Read them here!

Do you have a nice quote or insight to share? Don't hesitate to do it on the Amsterdam Smart City community!

1. ‘’The smartphone will be the citizen’s personal node in the internet of things and gateway to the smart city’’ – Brian Zanghi

> ‘How smart cities will use the internet of things’, an interesting blog about the Internet of Things

2. “Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation of goods and people, but also think of dynamic and temporary floating infrastructure like on-demand bridges and stages, that can be assembled or disassembled in a matter of hours” - Carlo Ratti, Professor at MIT and principal investigator about the Roboat-program of the AMS institute.

> The first prototypes of the autonomous Roboat will be visible in the waters of Amsterdam in 2017. More info about this project can you read here: Roboat

3. ‘’Chemistry has an important role in closing the circle and ensuring all this waste is used to produce novel resource materials that provide new molecular building blocks for new products’’ – Jacqueline Cramer

> Why chemistry is important for the circular economy, read it in here article about Chemistry for the Circular Economy

4. ''To become one of the most innovative regions of Europe we do need datatowers such as this one built by Digital Realty and opened today'' – Nina Tellegen, Amsterdam Economic Board.

> More and more international companies discover the power of the Dutch digital infrastructure and enter the European market via Amsterdam. More information can be found in the post about Datatowers

5. ''Cities basically go out and want to do everything. Free Wi-Fi, meter reading, environmental sensors, information screens, they want them all and they want them for free. Key is to begin by developing a road map of desired services and then prioritize them.'' - Tormod Larsen, CTO of ExteNet

> ‘Municipal governments overwhelmed with the endless choices for smart city projects need to take a breath and plan ahead’, read more in his article about Smart Cities

Are you curious to know more about some projects on our community? Here you can find an overview of the 5 most viewed projects of Amsterdam Smart City of September. Do you have a project you want to show to the innovative community of Amsterdam Smart City? Share it!

Are you curious to know more about some projects on our community? Here you can find an overview of the 5 most viewed projects of Amsterdam Smart City of September. Do you have a project you want to show to the innovative community of Amsterdam Smart City? Share it!

1 Smart Lighting

Smart lampposts on the ‘Hoekenrodeplein’ contribute to a safer public square and it saves energy by regulating the lightning intensity trough sensors. For example, lighting can be dimmed or adjusted according to the weather. The saved energy is used to measure air quality or generating WiFi. This concept will be further spread over the city of Amsterdam, like in the port. Read more on Smart Lighting.

2 Smart Traffic Management

By a collaboration between traffic managers from the municipality, province and country, the percentage of vehicle loss hours in the Amsterdam area has declined by 10 percent. The traffic management system of Amsterdam is connected with the system of the national government. Both centres can see what is going on, on just one screen. This is how the centres can jointly and automatically manage traffic within the region. Read more on Smart Traffic Management.

3 TransformCity: Pilot in Amsterdam

With so many different people living and working in cities, why not include all their dreams, their ideas and their ambitions, to create our cities of the future – together? That’s where TransformCity comes in. TransformCity is an online urban transformation dashboard. Citizens, businesses, organizations and the government can directly exchange information and ideas and collectively plan, make and own their city or neighbourhood. One of the examples is a neighbourhood in Amsterdam Southeast: ZOCITY. Check out TransformCity

4 City-zen: Virtual Power Plant

In Amsterdam Nieuw-West 50 households have PV-panels on their rooftop in combination with a home battery. With the use of the home battery it is possible to store energy during low electricity prices and discharge the battery during high prices. This closes the gap between the availability of (renewable) energy and the actual energy demand. Do you have PV panels or do you plan to install them in 2016? You can still participate in this project, read more!

5 The Green Living Lab

How can nature be integrated with the urban environment where we work, live and play in a sustainable way that benefits our health? In The Green Living Lab in Amsterdam, scientists, entrepreneurs and creatives meet to explore, stimulate and promote healthy urban living. For instance the possibilities of making compost out of the organic waste in Amsterdam are investigated. Check out The Green Living Lab.