Transvaal
Between the Hague market and the Zuiderpark (South Park)
Transvaal
was an urban extension area of The Hague, built between 1890 and
1935 for workers and small tradesmen. The name Transvaal can be
traced back to the Second Boer War in South Africa and the names
of the streets are related to that period in history. The district
is situated close to the Hague’s centre, adjacent to the
Hague market and the Zuiderpark. A multi-ethnic neighbourhood,
it is densely populated and lively with, in 2003, 75% of the inhabitants
being from foreign origin.
In the fifties and sixties the district, known as a better working
class area, was mainly populated by small tradesmen. Geographically
Transvaal was divided into streets with a mainly Catholic population
and streets where people of the Dutch Reformed persuasion were
living. These groups lived separated from each other. In the seventies
the first immigrant workers arrived, Italian migrants and people
from Surinam, later Turks, Moroccons and people from the Dutch
Antilles. By now there are roughly ninety nationalities in the
area. Transvaal always had a well developed social network with
active neighbourhood organizations and associations that organize
a great deal of activities for and with the inhabitants.
The
Hague’s city council has decided to radically restructure
this district in the coming years. The consequences of the cheap
housing market, overdue maintenance, high unemployment rate and
the arrival of unskilled foreign job-seekers reinforced each
other and caused problems in the socio-economic sphere. Transvaal
is one of 55 districts that were designated by the Ministry for
Housing, Regional Development and the Environment (VROM) where ‘(…)
the quality of life in the sense of lack of social cohesion,
harassment, and insecurity is a source for concern.’
The
city’s masterplan involves the demolition of 3000
rented houses and the construction of 1600 new buildings of which
70% private property and no more than 30% rented houses. Although
these large-scale projects aim at ‘gentrification’ of
the neigbourhood to thereby improve the quality of life the consequences
for many inhabitants are far-reaching.
Most of them cannot afford these new houses. The shortage of
cheap rented houses forces them to find a house somewhere else
in or outside of The Hague. Leaving their familiar environment
is hard on autochthonous local residents who have been living
in the same place for many years. Generally they don’t
thrive in a new spot. The social structure, developed in the
course of dozens of years, has gradually weakened. The reorganization
irreversibly accelerated this process.
The city has several reasons for this large-scale approach. Merging
different income brackets and depleting the population in the
area is seen as the solution of the problems.
The government’s policy is ‘(…) in addition
to the upgrading of housing conditions, to preserve the middle
and high income households which have been leaving to live elsewhere
for decades.’
The authorities expect that the new home-owners will feel more
responsible toward the neighbourhood than the original residents.
The degeneration of the area and the feeling of insecurity should
be stopped in this way.
The
government policy has to do with the altered goal of the privatized
housing
corporations
as well. Having implemented a
social function in the past they now have to operate like commercial
companies that need to obtain revenues. The return from the construction
and selling of private property is higher than that from letting
houses. The new market situation – but also the future
plans of the four large Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The
Hague and Utrecht) – plays a role with regard to this urban
development. In order to be able to compete on the international
market in the future as well The Hague ascribes to itself the
role of a city that focuses on information and communication
technologies: The Hague, the ICT city by the North Sea as a component
of the so-called Delta metropolis.
The
land in Transvaal has become costly. The price is determined
by
the district’s central and attractive situation and
has become too expensive for people with a low income. In view
of the large scale demolition activity which isn’t lacking
in almost any Dutch city the question of where these people will
be allowed to live in the future is all the more pressing.
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