Shopkeepers in and around the center of Haarlem are finally allowed to display products in front of them. After years of struggle, the case is settled. Bitterzoete irony: the bookstore in the Gierstraat that openly fought for this right has now been inadequate.
Jarco Huijsing was one the fierce opponents of the output ban that applied to some shopping streets in Haarlem. The battle flared up when the bookseller received a fine because he had put some crates with books in front of the facade of his store. He then put some flowers between the crates. Flower boxes were formally allowed in the Gierstraat.
Trial period
Your Haarlem and the action party raised the issue in the city council, on which Mayor Jos Wienen promised to investigate whether the rules could be adjusted.
Between January 15 and April 15, 2025, the municipality did a test in seventeen streets where until then an exhibition ban applied. During this period, entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to place their wares outside, provided that they left at least 1.5 meters of free passage for pedestrians.
Text continues under the photo.
The results show that the displays in most streets did not cause any problems. “That is why there is no reason to maintain the output ban,” the municipality says. For most streets in the city center, including the Grote Houtstraat, Kruisweg and Gierstraat, this means that there is now room for entrepreneurs to display responsibly.
Time and energy
Huijsing, advocate of the permission, no longer benefits from the victory achieved. He quit his bookstore last year. “Then all the time and energy apparently yielded something,” he sighs now. Huijsing now works at Antiquariaat Hovingh, in the Kleine Houtstraat. “An attractive street, where there is never any problem of displays.”
There is now a Haarsalon on the former site of Huising Books in Gierstraat, without displays.