“The balance is completely lost,” says Walther Schoonenberg, who we know from his work for the heritage association Friends of the Amsterdam City Center (VVAB). “The city center is nice because there are all different functions, but one is now starting to dominate.”
‘Not a nice place’
A fellow demonstrator agrees. “Many Amsterdam residents no longer come because it is no longer a nice place to go. It has become a place for tourists.”
Tourists we speak understand little of this dissatisfaction. “Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands,” says one of them. “So if tourism bothers them that much, they might move to smaller towns or the countryside.”