De Pijp is one of the best neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. I know it very well as I go there regularly, and this video covered pretty much everything. Nicely done! There are a few thoughts that I would like to add: 4:25 the private greenspace at the back of the blocks is great, but many of the streets in De Pijp have businesses on the ground floor, which means that the garden spaces are owned by the shops. This means that they're often underutilised or even not used at all, so they just sit there unused while the people who live above them do not have access. Ideally these would be a shared space accessible to all residents. 8:56 this story of the Stop de Kindermoord and other protests isn't incorrect, and it's the same story you often see online, but it's also very misleading. I've spoken with people who were involved in these protests, and the one thing that's rarely mentioned is that these protests were NOT always peaceful. Sometimes they were very violent, the worst being the Nieuwmarkt Riots. A lot of people walk away thinking that all Amsterdammers had to do was to stage a few peaceful protests, then everyone saw the light of the autoluwe stad and they lived happily ever after, but that's really not what happened. I think that distinction is important because governments are a lot better at squashing violet protests these days (like with "kettling"), so I'm not sure that this approach could work if they had to do it today. It's also interesting to note that the "Plan Jokinen" highway plan for Amsterdam involved bulldozing almost all of De Pijp (which was a run-down poor neighbourhood at the time) and turning it into a highway interchange. And finally, De Pijp is great, but it's also horrendously expensive to live there these days. As you said, the apartments were built to a very poor standard but that also means that they're often very small (like 30m²), unless you can find units that were combined. And because there are so few neighbourhoods like De Pijp there's high demand, and prices are some of the highest in the country. Essentially, De Pijp has become a victim of its own success.
You're absolutely right to point out that the protests were not always peaceful. While I focused more on the peaceful aspects of the Stop de Kindermoord and Autovrij protests, in hindsight, I should have also mentioned the 'darker' side. That being said, I would argue that the peaceful protests had a more significant impact. They lasted for years helping to shift society's and governments' mindset on car-accessibility. From what I could find, the 'dark' side of these protests in De Pijp involved vandalism like some cars flipped over with graffiti saying "autovrij". I knew about the Nieuwmarkt Riots, however, these were mostly driven by the municipality's plans to demolish several buildings to make way for the metro and not so much about autoluwe. Due to the protests, the original plans were ultimately halted.
"governments are a lot better at squashing violent protests these days"...hmm...you know I think you're right, but somehow when it's right wingers protesting, they don't seem to employ any of those techniques. FWIW Amersfoort's new district (De Laak) has attempted to replicate a lot of the feel of the old cities, and it's partially succeeded. The built form is very similar, but there's much less greenery--but that hopefully will change over time, but the biggest issue, is it is much less mixed use, and less dense (because the homes are bigger). So I think it'll be interesting to see how it evolves over time.
I wonder what housing prices would be like if there’d be new areas where they would build more but modernised 4-5 story walk ups with mixed use zoning and livable street design. And accessible green spaces behind the shops.
Great video, incredible explanation of this all, and it's obvious you put a ton of effort into making these well produced. Keep up the great work. I'm a fan, a cyclist, and urbanist watching from Los Angeles, where we're making progress, though I can only watch with envy at the massive changes that Amsterdam has made.
I lived in de Pieter Aertsz straat as a kid from 1969 till 1971 at number 168 third floor. I remember it had a nice relaxed vibe. The dwelling had two bedrooms a kitchen , a veranda in the back, a living room and a toilet and a small hallway. No bathroom. My dad made a shower in the alotted attic space . Close by in the neighborhood there was a bathhouse, but my dad said that was too much hassle.
I wonder how many younger Dutch people or foreigners know that were still quite a lot of households without bathrooms in the Netherlands some 50-60 years ago.
It's crazy how much photos of Amsterdam in the 70s and 80s look like Manchester city centre in the 2020s - we are very slowly starting to change things here, but over 90% of our city streets haven't been altered in decades and are pretty unpleasant spaces as a result. I am hoping that the boom in the centre's population leads to more calls for traffic reduction schemes - it would make it a far nicer place to live or visit!
Same for London. The photos of Amsterdam in the 70's are so similar to London today, and I wonder how it would look like if it followed the example. I think there is much potential!
I feel like Amsterdam is a great example of how a (mostly) car-dependent city can gradually change into a walkable paradise, which definitely gives me hope for the majority of North American cities.
Oh how if only Los Angeles would learn this, after each earthquake that destroys their transportation addiction----freeways (NOTHING "free" about them!). They had chance after chance to return true urbanity to the city by returning the wasted land occupied by these "Hitler strips" to much more productive uses, such as housing and commercial development. If southern California were TRULY SMART, there'd still be the Pacific Electric Red Cars and the Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars EFFICIENTLY and SAFELY transporting passengers to this very day!
i love this city. it’s a joy to live here, even with its problems. my neighbourhood is a walkable “15 min” city except i have it in 3 directions & 2 parks 5min away. if only the road works management would be a bit better😂
The USA is the world's most egregious moron when it comes to moving people between two points. This is because of the automotive industry, energy corporations, and the airline industry all lobbying congress for more governmental oversubsidization with each and every passing year. Meanwhile, railroads have always had to pay exorbitantly high property taxes----a good portion of which end up assisting in the oversubsidization of both stuperhighways and air travel.
@@dominykasmik8699 Currently, Vilnius is doing the best out of the Baltics. Bicycle Dutch has made a video about cycling in Vilnius, I recommend watching it!
8:15 is balance truly struck if the cost is exorbitant? I often find that car infrastructure ends up being subsidised by non-car-owners, whether by paying rent in a building with underground parking, or paying taxes with overly large roads (Amsterdam isn't free from this!), but I don't know what your take is on that :)
Car infrastructure will always be subsidized by everyone, and that's why it's important to not prioritize car infrastructure but bicycles and pubic transportation
Om in slaap te vallen luister ik naar de boeken van Baantjer. De reeks is een geweldig tijdsdocument. Eerst zijn er geen problemen met het verkeer. Dan staan ze alsmaar vaker vast in de file. Eén van de hoofdpersonen is van mening dat grachten gedempt zouden moeten worden. De laatste jaren zijn de files verdwenen.
So the question is, why did it only happen in the Netherlands? How did they manage to change things while everyone around is only trying to catch up now?
Those other places might be severely hampered by their own respective automotive industries/airlines that receive huge subsidies to stay functional.... Plus, this ties directly into the use of fossil fuels----the energy corporations also have their huge paws into the transportation "pie".
In part because the Netherlands did not change, it did not have to reverse many changes. Much did not change substantially from the early 20th century until the 1970s, and then it became more advantageous to go in a different direction. Further history and money: Napoleon gave the Netherlands small municipalities with little power and money. The Netherlands was the third country in Europe to build highways and, from the 1920s and 1930s, did so outside the cities, not through them. The only car factory of any significance produced trucks and small cars. The Second World War, colonial wars and the 1953 flood disaster meant that the priorities were not to change cities big time. It is a sin for the Dutch to spend money unnecessarily.
@@CraigFThompson Makes sense on the surface but the changes did not result in few people owning and driving cars, Netherlands is among the top car-owning and daily-driving countries in the world. The only difference is that they figured out how to make it better and safer for everyone.
That is a great question, and I don't think there is a simple answer. One thing that played a major role is their mentality. Was there another city in the 70s that had anti-car protests that went on for years and called for an end to killing children on the streets?
@@Nakaska Mainly, they DIDN’T have an overbearing automotive industry or a voracious energy corporation controlling their ground-based transportation, as is here in the USA.
He keeps saying Sea of Asphalt", but unless they tore the streets up and put in stones, or just left dirt, it's the same amount of it! I assume with the bike lanes on the sides it's still asphalt of some kind.
What a strange comment, you can clearly see in the video that only roads designed for through-traffic still have a strip of asphalt, but much narrower than it used to be, and everything else is brick pavers now.
@@MatthijsvanDuin Normally what I see for streets stays the same for materials, not replacing surfaces with something special for bicycles. Not being used to the layouts there, it just seemed to me it would be the same. But I get it now that there would be less asphalt by adding in the sections for the bike paths. Meant it less as a strange remark and more of snarky one.
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, thé Hague and most Netherland cities and towns are way quieter, calm and peaceful asf when private cars are minimized in their central business districts… unlike US cities 😮😮
15 minute cities are about the NEED to leave your area (for basic stuff), not the ability. In fact one of the key amenities in the area is a train station. It's also not "one block" - 15 minutes by bike is more like 5 kilometer or 3 miles radius. In Amsterdam that's basically everywhere inside the ring road.
De Pijp is one of the best neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. I know it very well as I go there regularly, and this video covered pretty much everything. Nicely done!
There are a few thoughts that I would like to add:
4:25 the private greenspace at the back of the blocks is great, but many of the streets in De Pijp have businesses on the ground floor, which means that the garden spaces are owned by the shops. This means that they're often underutilised or even not used at all, so they just sit there unused while the people who live above them do not have access. Ideally these would be a shared space accessible to all residents.
8:56 this story of the Stop de Kindermoord and other protests isn't incorrect, and it's the same story you often see online, but it's also very misleading. I've spoken with people who were involved in these protests, and the one thing that's rarely mentioned is that these protests were NOT always peaceful. Sometimes they were very violent, the worst being the Nieuwmarkt Riots.
A lot of people walk away thinking that all Amsterdammers had to do was to stage a few peaceful protests, then everyone saw the light of the autoluwe stad and they lived happily ever after, but that's really not what happened.
I think that distinction is important because governments are a lot better at squashing violet protests these days (like with "kettling"), so I'm not sure that this approach could work if they had to do it today.
It's also interesting to note that the "Plan Jokinen" highway plan for Amsterdam involved bulldozing almost all of De Pijp (which was a run-down poor neighbourhood at the time) and turning it into a highway interchange.
And finally, De Pijp is great, but it's also horrendously expensive to live there these days. As you said, the apartments were built to a very poor standard but that also means that they're often very small (like 30m²), unless you can find units that were combined. And because there are so few neighbourhoods like De Pijp there's high demand, and prices are some of the highest in the country.
Essentially, De Pijp has become a victim of its own success.
Isn't it 4am where you are? Go to bed
You're absolutely right to point out that the protests were not always peaceful. While I focused more on the peaceful aspects of the Stop de Kindermoord and Autovrij protests, in hindsight, I should have also mentioned the 'darker' side. That being said, I would argue that the peaceful protests had a more significant impact. They lasted for years helping to shift society's and governments' mindset on car-accessibility. From what I could find, the 'dark' side of these protests in De Pijp involved vandalism like some cars flipped over with graffiti saying "autovrij". I knew about the Nieuwmarkt Riots, however, these were mostly driven by the municipality's plans to demolish several buildings to make way for the metro and not so much about autoluwe. Due to the protests, the original plans were ultimately halted.
"governments are a lot better at squashing violent protests these days"...hmm...you know I think you're right, but somehow when it's right wingers protesting, they don't seem to employ any of those techniques.
FWIW Amersfoort's new district (De Laak) has attempted to replicate a lot of the feel of the old cities, and it's partially succeeded. The built form is very similar, but there's much less greenery--but that hopefully will change over time, but the biggest issue, is it is much less mixed use, and less dense (because the homes are bigger). So I think it'll be interesting to see how it evolves over time.
I thought that the Nieuwmarkt Riots (Nieuwmarktrellen) had to do with demolishing buildings for the new metro line.
I wonder what housing prices would be like if there’d be new areas where they would build more but modernised 4-5 story walk ups with mixed use zoning and livable street design. And accessible green spaces behind the shops.
Please consider doing a video on gentle density and economy’s of density
I have a similar video coming soon
Great idea!
Nice job on this video! Keep up the great work. 🙌
Lived in de Pijp for years. Love it and still go there with the metro.
Great video, incredible explanation of this all, and it's obvious you put a ton of effort into making these well produced. Keep up the great work. I'm a fan, a cyclist, and urbanist watching from Los Angeles, where we're making progress, though I can only watch with envy at the massive changes that Amsterdam has made.
Absolutely amazing video with all the important details and well needed comparisons. Loved every second of it
I lived in de Pieter Aertsz straat as a kid from 1969 till 1971 at number 168 third floor.
I remember it had a nice relaxed vibe.
The dwelling had two bedrooms a kitchen , a veranda in the back, a living room and a toilet and a small hallway.
No bathroom.
My dad made a shower in the alotted attic space .
Close by in the neighborhood there was a bathhouse, but my dad said that was too much hassle.
I wonder how many younger Dutch people or foreigners know that were still quite a lot of households without bathrooms in the Netherlands some 50-60 years ago.
Great video! I found you at around 2.7k subscribers and was honestly surprised you didn't have many more
It's crazy how much photos of Amsterdam in the 70s and 80s look like Manchester city centre in the 2020s - we are very slowly starting to change things here, but over 90% of our city streets haven't been altered in decades and are pretty unpleasant spaces as a result. I am hoping that the boom in the centre's population leads to more calls for traffic reduction schemes - it would make it a far nicer place to live or visit!
Same for London. The photos of Amsterdam in the 70's are so similar to London today, and I wonder how it would look like if it followed the example. I think there is much potential!
I have great hopes for the purpose and future of this channel, keep up the good work!
I feel like Amsterdam is a great example of how a (mostly) car-dependent city can gradually change into a walkable paradise, which definitely gives me hope for the majority of North American cities.
Oh how if only Los Angeles would learn this, after each earthquake that destroys their transportation addiction----freeways (NOTHING "free" about them!). They had chance after chance to return true urbanity to the city by returning the wasted land occupied by these "Hitler strips" to much more productive uses, such as housing and commercial development.
If southern California were TRULY SMART, there'd still be the Pacific Electric Red Cars and the Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars EFFICIENTLY and SAFELY transporting passengers to this very day!
great video!
Your video is very amazing
An occasional downward inflection in the voice-over wouldn't hurt. Insightful video though!
I was in Rome last week, and that city can learn a thing or two from this video.
i love this city. it’s a joy to live here, even with its problems. my neighbourhood is a walkable “15 min” city except i have it in 3 directions & 2 parks 5min away. if only the road works management would be a bit better😂
Better than USA conditions, and a lot SAFER. And you don't have to go into the city by car, public transport is also available.
The USA is the world's most egregious moron when it comes to moving people between two points. This is because of the automotive industry, energy corporations, and the airline industry all lobbying congress for more governmental oversubsidization with each and every passing year.
Meanwhile, railroads have always had to pay exorbitantly high property taxes----a good portion of which end up assisting in the oversubsidization of both stuperhighways and air travel.
Someone needs to show this video to Doug Ford, especially how he claims ripping up bike lanes to add a car lane will improve our quality of life...
Are you considering to do a vid about vilnius or any other lithuanian city.
love your video btw
I'm not sure, I've been to the city several times but might go again and make a video!
@@streetscaping Cool, what is your opinion about vilnius situation in street design and bisycle infrastucture?
@@dominykasmik8699 Currently, Vilnius is doing the best out of the Baltics. Bicycle Dutch has made a video about cycling in Vilnius, I recommend watching it!
love and miss this city so much
8:15 is balance truly struck if the cost is exorbitant? I often find that car infrastructure ends up being subsidised by non-car-owners, whether by paying rent in a building with underground parking, or paying taxes with overly large roads (Amsterdam isn't free from this!), but I don't know what your take is on that :)
Car infrastructure will always be subsidized by everyone, and that's why it's important to not prioritize car infrastructure but bicycles and pubic transportation
9:06 Oh, so the name *does* mean "the Pipe", I thought it was just a funny coincidence.
Om in slaap te vallen luister ik naar de boeken van Baantjer. De reeks is een geweldig tijdsdocument. Eerst zijn er geen problemen met het verkeer. Dan staan ze alsmaar vaker vast in de file. Eén van de hoofdpersonen is van mening dat grachten gedempt zouden moeten worden. De laatste jaren zijn de files verdwenen.
Great!
where are the office buildings that people go to for work though?
It will never be a walk friendly cities in my country due to the extreme hot weather
Where are you from?
@@streetscaping Saudi
@@streetscaping KSA
So the question is, why did it only happen in the Netherlands? How did they manage to change things while everyone around is only trying to catch up now?
Those other places might be severely hampered by their own respective automotive industries/airlines that receive huge subsidies to stay functional....
Plus, this ties directly into the use of fossil fuels----the energy corporations also have their huge paws into the transportation "pie".
In part because the Netherlands did not change, it did not have to reverse many changes. Much did not change substantially from the early 20th century until the 1970s, and then it became more advantageous to go in a different direction.
Further history and money: Napoleon gave the Netherlands small municipalities with little power and money. The Netherlands was the third country in Europe to build highways and, from the 1920s and 1930s, did so outside the cities, not through them. The only car factory of any significance produced trucks and small cars. The Second World War, colonial wars and the 1953 flood disaster meant that the priorities were not to change cities big time. It is a sin for the Dutch to spend money unnecessarily.
@@CraigFThompson Makes sense on the surface but the changes did not result in few people owning and driving cars, Netherlands is among the top car-owning and daily-driving countries in the world. The only difference is that they figured out how to make it better and safer for everyone.
That is a great question, and I don't think there is a simple answer. One thing that played a major role is their mentality. Was there another city in the 70s that had anti-car protests that went on for years and called for an end to killing children on the streets?
@@Nakaska Mainly, they DIDN’T have an overbearing automotive industry or a voracious energy corporation controlling their ground-based transportation, as is here in the USA.
Amsterdam isn’t perfect, but it’s better, healthier, happier and safer than any American city.
He keeps saying Sea of Asphalt", but unless they tore the streets up and put in stones, or just left dirt, it's the same amount of it! I assume with the bike lanes on the sides it's still asphalt of some kind.
Yep, in residential areas, they tore up the asphalt and put in bricks
What a strange comment, you can clearly see in the video that only roads designed for through-traffic still have a strip of asphalt, but much narrower than it used to be, and everything else is brick pavers now.
@@MatthijsvanDuin Normally what I see for streets stays the same for materials, not replacing surfaces with something special for bicycles. Not being used to the layouts there, it just seemed to me it would be the same. But I get it now that there would be less asphalt by adding in the sections for the bike paths. Meant it less as a strange remark and more of snarky one.
For english speakers thinking: damn this neighbourhood sound like “the pipe”, it is. Thats the name. We are such a silly country😅
this might be fine for the netherlands but it would never work in our city because of various convoluted excuses that I just made up.
I live right there. Ask me anything.
"Ask me anything" ? Great!
What are the winning numbers for next month's national lotery? Thanks.
it will never happen in Zagreb
Maybe in 50 years?
Don't let your hopes down :)
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, thé Hague and most Netherland cities and towns are way quieter, calm and peaceful asf when private cars are minimized in their central business districts… unlike US cities 😮😮
Promoting the 15 minute cities.
A prison that confines to one block.... 'cause IT'S SO NICE!
Oh no. A city that isn't infested with cars. Must be a prison....
Amsterdam is full of cars, what's the problem?
Yeah cause being forced into cars for every single thing is the pinnacle of freedom. Well it isn’t but that’s what uninformed people like you think.
15 minute cities are about the NEED to leave your area (for basic stuff), not the ability. In fact one of the key amenities in the area is a train station. It's also not "one block" - 15 minutes by bike is more like 5 kilometer or 3 miles radius. In Amsterdam that's basically everywhere inside the ring road.
Its not a prison, its not confined and its not one block. The anti-15 minute city thing is the most easily disproved, popular conspiracy out there.