Thirty years ago, the Antwerp City riverbanks were a second-rate neighborhood, with many inhabitants having working (shipping), historic or emotional ties to the river.
During the early 80s, Antwerp City even build low-cost (low quality) rent-controlled apartments near the riverbanks. But much like in Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’, Antwerp city council got into a pact with the devil by unofficially giving the go-ahead sign for a blank contract with a number of powerful developers like Himmos, who were delighted to fill in this 5 km of prime location with truly expensive, upscale condos and lofts in a price-range hitting the 1 million euro price limit.
Ever had a neighbor with a pool on his penthouse rooftop? You can find them right here.
Some of the architectural results may sure look pleasing to the eye, but the social fabric of this area has been shamelessly destroyed, with continuous efforts to chase away the not-so-rich native inhabitants. Rents went through the roof, parking spaces for regular inhabitants mysteriously disappeared and even complete city streets (Riemstraat, Southern Antwerp quays) were sold by this “caring city” to become gated communities for the jet-setting rich. Working class families were forced to move in droves, unable to stop Antwerp City council never ending need for cash.
With a cynical “Antwerp belongs to everyone” slogan the City managed to cover its real aim: turning Antwerp’s riverbanks into a playground for the privileged few.
Recently Antwerp author Koen Calliauw wrote a hard-hitting blog post (Dutch only, unfortunately): in The Mob (Organized crime) rules Antwerp he touched a raw nerve by serving a shocking story involving shady City council members and their affiliations, building promoters like Himmos, cocaine abusing VIPs in ‘do as you please’ upscale clubs with a license to break the law, along with classic stories of police and city corruption.
You know, after I read the book by the head of Antwerp city planning Ludo Van Campenhout’s (OpenVLD, Liberal, City Council) “Dromen is durven” ["To dream is to dare"] I wasn’t surprised to witness him address a crowd of rich riverbank inhabitants from the Antwerp quays at the Zuiderpershuis, a few days before the elections on June 10th 2007. Dear Ludo ‘promised’ to (but probably won’t be able to) to try turning the huge open space used by the yearly Antwerp funfair into (yet another) upscale marina, making sure that no “lower class” citizen or tourist could “upset” the view from the 1 million euro penthouses of his filthy rich audience.
Say again Antwerp, “this town belongs to everyone”? ["t'stad is van iedereen" in Dutch]
You know, many upper class Antwerp riverbank rich from various backgrounds believe that they are where they are in life based on their achievements. They seem unaware that not everyone shares their privileged existence, or seem to believe that anyone who doesn’t has only themselves to blame.
As for Antwerp’s disgraceful “a city for the rich” approach to the riverbanks (and many other parts of town): it’s a shameful sell-out to the building promoters, the speculators and all those who successfully cashed in on destroying the fabric of what once was a real community called ‘downtown Antwerp’. Feel free to comment (if you dare 
) [images: Westkaai planning by project² : amazing pictures! Care for a penthouse? According to a local paper they will set you back 2.3 million Euro. Six units available spring 2009, most already sold.]
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.