What started as an innocent action with sidewalk chalk grew into a small soap opera in Breda. At the beginning of October, Rianne Meersschaert was fined 140 euros for spraying arrows on the sidewalk to direct people in wheelchairs to a mobile toilet. A few weeks later, the Dolle Mina’s started working with similar chalk paint in the city center, but it remained a warning. “I wish them all the best, but it is not fair,” says Rianne. “We do something good and we get punished.”
Rianne (39) has been campaigning for better public toilets in Breda for some time. Because of her MS disease, she knows how difficult it is when you suddenly need a toilet and there is none nearby. “There were only 66 public toilets in Breda, which is far too few for such a big city,” she says. Through the project PLEE list Breda she is working to increase that number to 200, of which 40 are wheelchair accessible.
“The irony is that the municipality subsidized the toilets where I drew the arrows.”
During Accessibility Week, the first Chasing Places unit in the Netherlands, a mobile toilet for people with disabilities, was even on Kasteelplein on October 11. To show passers-by and wheelchair users the way, Rianne and her husband sprayed arrows on the sidewalk towards the toilet with environmentally friendly sidewalk chalk paint in the Valkenberg Park.
“We didn’t harm anyone and the paint comes off after a rain shower, but the police came within an hour,” she says. “They asked if we had a permit. When we said we didn’t, we were immediately fined.”
The question is whether you need a permit, because sidewalk chalking seems to be allowed, provided you only do it on the sidewalk and not on objects or buildings. Rianne is especially incensed because a few weeks later the Dolle Mina’s spray-painted feminist slogans in the Valkenberg Park with the same chalk paint, but were not fined. The group was approached by enforcers, but was released with a warning.
“We only did it on the sidewalk, and they also did it on trash cans and the city hall. And we get the fine. Then you think: are they using double standards? It feels like arbitrariness.”
“Just like the Dolle Mina’s, we fight for more equality and understanding.”
Yet Rianne emphasizes that she does not blame the Dolle Mina’s. In fact, she is very supportive of their action. “I think it’s great what they do. They draw attention to the safety of women, and that is just as important a social issue as accessibility. We are both fighting for more equality and understanding.”
Rianne has now objected to the fine. “According to the rules, sidewalk chalk is allowed as long as it is not advertising and does not pose a danger. We complied with this. The irony is that the municipality subsidized the toilets where I drew the arrows. And then the police gave me a fine.”
The sidewalk chalk soap opera in Breda does not seem to be over yet. Because although the arrows have long since disappeared in the rain, the discussion about enforcement and fines remains alive and well.