A bright spot in dark days for residents of Waardhuizen in Amstelveen: today they opened their own meeting point. The local residents miss the pleasant chats they always had in the once bustling local shopping center. This has become a mess since the departure of the only supermarket.
“We miss those normal conversations about who is sick or whose dog has run away and who has just had a great-grandchild. These are of course small things, but it is a kind of ‘neighborhood tissue’,” says initiator Evertje Polder . The municipality-funded welfare organization Participe helped residents set up the point, which will be open two mornings a week from today.
‘Unpleasant and sad’
The shopping center has recently deteriorated rapidly: more and more shops closed their doors. The big low point was that the beloved toy seller Hubert threw in the towel. “It makes it very unpleasant and sad,” says local resident Jim Appelmelk.
Local residents raised the alarm with the municipality about the situation in March. Councilor for Economic Affairs Adam Elzakalai then promised in front of the NH camera to take action against the situation. “I cannot promise that there will be a supermarket in a few months, but I can see what is possible to create the conditions to make that possible,” he said at the time.
View the report below in which councilor Elzakalai promises the neighborhood to do his utmost.
Elzakalai was missing during the opening of the meeting center, but colleague Marijn van Ballegooijen from Zorg en Welzijn is there. He says about Elzakalai’s absence: “He is currently in a meeting, but he is working very hard on it and I admire that very much.”
Yet all these efforts seem to have had little effect so far. The residents have regular contact with manager Netjes Beheer and are always told that there is no prospect of a new supermarket yet. “It’s a challenge to sit here,” Evertje thinks. “Of course, that Coop didn’t leave because things were going so well. You have to be honest about that.”