EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Lack of culture causes middle and high income households to leave

Lack of culture causes middle and high income households to leave

Introduction

Cities do not offer their residents enough culture. New cities and growing suburbs are especially unattractive to middle and high income households due to their lack of cultural facilities. The population growth in these communities outpaces that of the cultural sector and other urban facilities such as restaurants and bookshops. This means that these communities are more likely to become the problem neighbourhoods of the future, due to their increasingly monotonous composition. This will eventually lower the quality of life in these neighbourhoods, according to the Atlas voor gemeenten 2007 (Atlas for Municipalities 2007).

Description

This atlas is published annually by the Atlas Voor Gemeenten Foundation. Each year, the Atlas compares the fifty largest municipalities in the Netherlands based on forty different criteria. The theme of this year's atlas is 'Culture'.

According to the Atlas, cities such as Almere, Spijkenisse, Purmerend, Haarlemmermeer, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Zoetermeer and Lelystad are loosing their appeal. "These cities are increasingly faced with the big-city problems, but without offering the advantages of being a big city. Creative and well-educated people prefer living in cities with cultural facilities, but these growing communities do not offer any", according to Gerard Marlet, the Director of the Atlas voor gemeenten and co-writer of the report.

While new cities and growing suburbs deteriorate, Marlet claims that traditional cities such as Groningen en Leiden are doing well. ‘It is the world turned upside-down. Back in the seventies and eighties, middle-class households left the traditional cities that were becoming impoverished and settled in the new cities. Now you see that the traditional cities are in demand and that the new cities have the same kinds of problems that the traditional cities had twenty years ago.’

According to Marlet, cities like Almere should do all they can to bring culture and urban diversions into the city and keep them there. Living in Almere and going out in Amsterdam is not an option for the majority of the higher income groups in Almere, says Marlet. "Almere is too far from Amsterdam. You can't say: I'll go home, have something to eat and then take the metro three stops to the city centre. So in Almere you sit on the couch and watch television every evening."

Contact info

Atlas voor Gemeenten Foundation
The Netherlands
Gerard Marlet

Publication date

Researcher

Gerard Marlet

Cities

Fifty largest municipalities in the Netherlands

Links

More information on the Atlas voor Gemeenten Foundation (in Dutch only)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Urban economy

Keywords

Specific sectors

Institutional characteristics
Local Authority