26-10-2020 // HI INHABITANTS

·       Meeting Monique

·       Debate Dutch Design Week

·       Liveability meeting (Leefbaarheidsvergadering)

 

Debate DDW

The series of debates organized by the municipality took place last Thursday during the (online) Dutch Design Week. We watched one of the debates about ‘Meedoen’ (participating). An elaboration on this debate can, later on, be found under the label in this logbook.

 

MEETING MONIQUE

Last Thursday we also had a meeting with our client and supervisor Monique. This meeting was planned to discuss how everything was going. Monique emphasized that her client Jos said that he has the feeling there is little progress in the Emmasingelkwadrant, so that some input is desperately needed. Before we can create an action plan, we first want to speak to those involved in the projects that are already going on. We still haven’t heard anything from Sandra, the one from the municipality involved in the VitalZone project. So we decided, together with Monique, to contact Jim. Jim is working at VitalZone and involved in the project concerning the Emmasingelkwadrant. We will have a conversation with him tomorrow (27-10-2020). We also contacted Annelies. Annelies is working at the municipality and has contact with VANTOT. VANTOT is the organization behind the Sunseekers that will be placed in November. VANTOT wants to create something around the opening of the Sunseeker. They would also have other ideas to ‘brighten up’ the neighborhood. It is not yet clear to us what those ideas are. That is why it would be a good idea to talk to Annelies to see how we can complement and strengthen each other.

 

LIVABILITY MEETING (Leefbaarheidsvergadering)

Eric, the area coordinator of the Emmasingelkwadrant, invited us to participate in the Livability Meeting of the Emmasingelkwadrant. This took place today at 6:00 PM. Eric had already forwarded the introduction to our project to the participants so that the participants could already read a bit about what we are going to do. Although normally the police and others involved are present at this meeting, this time there were only four other people present besides us and Eric. The reason, they thought, was because this was the first meeting through Teams; normally this meeting takes place offline.

Marco: Marco lives in the apartment complex De Graaf. He owns his apartment and wants to become old in this neighborhood. He is concerned about the neighborhood, which is why he attends the liveability meetings.

Peter: Peter is a resident of apartment complex De Vorst and at the same time a member of the owners association. Peter mentioned the nuisance, mainly around the carcass. He also says that there are currently enough small and big concerns about the liveability of the Victoria Park (which has still not been built).

Geert: Geert is a resident of the Lichtoren and also a member of the owners association. This building not only has a residential function but also commercial functions. They also want to try to create more "synergy" within the Lichtoren. Geert notices that involvement is less, but involvement remains important for those who want to be involved.

Petra: Petra does not live in this area, but works for Woonbedrijf. Woonbedrijf has various (social) rental properties at their disposal. This also applies to De Ridder on the edge of the Emmasingelkwadrant. On the other side of De Ridder, they also have places available for ‘Flex wonen’. This means that people ``with problems" are offered a two-year contract to live there. Because the contract is only for two years, the bond and commitment are different. People mainly live there "anonymously". Due to the circumstances around Corona, Petra is not regularly there anymore. So she immediately notices that the bond and involvement are different; Petra usually tries to stimulate this.

Although not many people were present, we also saw the benefits of it; in a smaller group, people may be more daring to express what they actually think about a particular situation. There are a number of important situations that came up during this meeting:

-        We heard that the area (around the) Victoria Park is owned by the real estate group Foolen & Reijs. During the Liveability meeting, some confusion arose about this; is it not owned by real estate group Breevast? Whoever owns the Victoria Park, according to the participants, the willingness to start with the developments is low. The participants are looking for clarity about the Victoria Park; how long will it take before construction starts? According to the participants, the park was already committed in 2014, but it seems that nothing is happening and nothing is being addressed. Eric did reassure the participants somewhat with the launch of the project page about the Emmasingelkwardrant on the website of the municipality of Eindhoven.

-          Safety in the Emmasingelkwadrant is poor. This has also been confirmed by the police & enforcement during the previous liveability meeting. We quote: "It is pure crime". When will this unsafe situation be addressed?

-          A test setup of the Sunseeker will be installed in November. The lighting will hopefully create a better experience in the area and people will immediately feel safer.

-          Coffeeshop Pink would like to talk to the participants of this conversation and all others involved. They are aware that their customers cause nuisance in the neighborhood. They would like to do something about it. The initiative to start a conversation therefore also comes from themselves.

During this conversation, we noticed that there are two major issues that bother the participants. On the one hand the Victoria Park; they want clarity. The Victoria Park should be prioritized and it doesn't have that now. The policy surrounding this park is not clear; what is being actively done, when will there be clarity and when can the participants of this meeting have a conversation with the project leaders? Clarity in particular is something that the participants of the liveability meeting yearn for, but which they continuously do not get. The second major issue is safety, which is in line with the Victoria Park. Most of the benches are already removed because they caused nuisance. The participants are convinced that when the park is being built, safety will also improve. Until then, something must be done about it; when will there be a real solution?