Investing in Stones is Not Enough
Rotterdam is a rich city, a major port – what security challenges does that pose?
The port of Rotterdam is twice the size of Antwerp, twice that of Hamburg – a big provider of jobs, a major contributor to the Netherland’s GDP and vital for the European economy. The city owns 70 per cent of the port; the other 30 per cent are in the hands of the national government. That is unusual. In many countries, the national governments are responsible for ports and airports. In the Netherlands – in Rotterdam and in Amsterdam – that is not the case. As mayor, I am responsible for the port, including its safety and security. One of the main challenges is cyber security. A lot of things are done electronically – we have paperless customs, for example. Then there is the question of physical safety. The port has one of the largest petrochemical sites in the world. If we were to have an explosion, that would be a very big problem. The third concern is drug trafficking and trafficking in illicit and counterfeit goods.
Another unusual thing in the Netherlands is that mayors of large cities like Rotterdam are responsible for policing not only their own cities but also the surrounding region. I am a regional mayor in this sense, carrying responsibility for 56 towns and villages. So the ability to deal with police and law enforcement is a major requirement for the job. When I was appointed in 2009, one of the reasons I was chosen was my experience with the Amsterdam police in my previous capacity as vice-mayor of that city. Together with the mayor I was heavily involved in managing the aftermath of the murder of Van Gogh [Dutch film director assassinated on 2 November 2004], in calming the city and managing the whole psychological situation surrounding that murder.
How did you go about doing that?
Talking, talking and more talking. My vision of being a good mayor is being close to citizens, giving people the feeling that I am someone who really listens. That does not necessarily mean that I do everything people want me to – you cannot be a friend to everyone. But at least people have the idea that I listen to their story.
When I became mayor of Rotterdam, I decided to organize neighbourhood meetings about security issues. My civil servants said, ‘You’re crazy, you never talk about security and safety in public, it’s too sensitive.’ I would like to distinguish between what is sensitive and what is secret, to be discussed behind closed doors. We organize meetings about sensitive issues. We do that very traditionally: we knock on doors, tell people that the mayor is in the area – in a school building or another public building – and invite them to come. We always have something to eat – not catered, someone from the neighbourhood provides local food. I come together with my police chief, the representative of the housing corporation and the people responsible for cleaning and lighting in the city. We provide the data we have about the neighbourhood, beginning with the police report. And then we ask the citizens to give us feedback. In the beginning there were a lot of complaints. Now, eight years later, they don't come to complain, they come because they have ideas for how to do things better.
We also have what we call city marines: six people who work on behalf of the mayor. They have their own budget and they work with citizens to change things in neighbourhoods. At first, people found this strange. They may have had an idea for creating some green space, for instance, and we said: ‘well, do it!’ And they would answer: ‘we would like you to do it.’ But I said: ‘no, you do it yourself. Buy what you need and the city marine will pay the bill. We can provide some know-how or expertise, but you do it.’ That's what we call co-creation. It goes far beyond the old idea of citizens having a say in how the city uses its power. Now it is the other way round: they do things in their own neighbourhood and we support them.
What about disadvantaged neighbourhoods?
I prefer to call them ‘neighbourhoods requiring special attention’. These communities have intensified security issues. It means we have to deploy a lot more police there. But investing in stones is not enough. We are working in these neighbourhoods with corporations, educators, employers, the national government and healthcare providers.
Education is my number one priority – investing in the brains of the kids. We provide approximately eight additional hours of education a week – eight extra hours of language and math – to the children in these neighbourhoods. Furthermore, if you as a young person are enrolled in vocational training in healthcare or certain technological fields, you get a guaranteed job. We created an independent organization in Rotterdam South, I chair it myself, and the employers, the housing corporations and the healthcare system are with us. They guarantee us more than 200 jobs a year for students from these neighbourhoods.
My second priority is housing. Rotterdam South counts 35,000 houses that one way or another need to be renovated. Here we were able to achieve something magical. We succeeded in having an exception created in the housing law, whereby our housing corporations pay less on the condition that they reinvest the difference into those 35,000 houses. That’s around 750 million Euros made available each year – quite a budget. Of course, it will take billions to complete this work – we are talking about a period of 15 years. But that we, as a city, could get this exception written into the law – that is fascinating! In the Netherlands there is no other case like it.
Thirdly, we are cleaning up certain economic phenomena in these neighbourhoods, the laundering of drug money, for example. We have come across a hair salon without a chair, for example – it was never meant to function as a hair salon. The city council accepted a proposal to apply, for the first time in the Netherlands, very heavy regulations on certain types of business: car dealers, garages, jewellery shops, beauty parlours. Under this new arrangement, I can close these shops or oblige them to apply for special permission to reopen. I can do that on certain streets, for a certain type of shop or in a certain neighbourhood. That gives me the power to regulate these processes. I did this after visiting the neighbourhood in question five times, saying, ‘friends, we have a problem here, I cannot solve it alone with the police force in my hand, we have to do it together.’
What advice would you give to a mayor of a city that is not as rich as Rotterdam, does not have a port or the revenue that you do?
Clearly, in a different economy, a different country, you have another situation. But I do believe there is always space for change within the limits of your own fortunes. Of course, you cannot deal with certain questions if you don't have the authority provided by the law. I am responsible for policing – a lot of mayors are not. So they have less leeway for original and local solutions. Nevertheless, even with limited resources you can do a lot. In regard to radicalization, for example, the most important instrument is talking, convincing people. That has nothing to do with money. And then, when you do have some money to spend, do it in co-creation with citizens – that's really important.