NH spent three days in IJmuiden: is it still livable in the centuries-old fishing town?

In recent months, there has been a violent incident in IJmuiden approximately every three days. A significant increase and also in proportionality: arguments are no longer fought out in the pub, but with a bomb at the door.

Reason for the mayor to intervene. Several cameras had to quell the explosive violence. In addition, ‘suspicious’ catering establishments and homes were closed. However, even with these measures, these measures failed to get a grip on drug violence.

Mayor Dales therefore took an orthodox decision and declared the whole of IJmuiden a safety risk area. On the one hand, to send a signal to the group that is held responsible for drug-related violence, and on the other hand, to warn young people about the criminal path. Yet the rigorous measure has consequences for all residents of IJmuiden.

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“It’s all fine,” says one woman, shrugging her shoulders. She does her shopping in the Velserhof shopping center. On the map, the shopping center is located exactly in the middle of all the places where the police had to respond in recent months. “It’s far from my bed. And I’m a real IJmuienaar, so I’m not afraid either.”

According to Henk de Reus, of the Velsen Historical Society, the woman is a typical ‘canal digger’. He explains that historically, IJmuiden residents consist of roughly two groups: the canal diggers and fishermen. Canal diggers, mainly day laborers who moved to IJmuiden from 1865 for the construction of the North Sea Canal, came from everywhere. “Rough people and not afraid.”

Once the North Sea Canal was built, fishermen also came to IJmuiden. A new place to trade fish suddenly arose between Rotterdam and Den Helder. According to De Reus, the fishermen and the diggers had the same mentality. Hard workers, with their heart on their sleeve.

Like Ronnie, owner of the Kamperduin harbor café. He is not easily frightened by a bomb or a shooting. He spent his childhood under the bar of his grandfather and grandmother’s pub, just around the corner. Most of the workers’ houses from his youth have been demolished and replaced by new construction. “You used to be able to walk in everywhere, now only Haarlem residents live here.”

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The bar owner did not experience anything from the shelling and explosions. “It’s good that Dales is tackling crime, but I don’t notice any violence here.” Yes, last year regular Tom almost died when he was tackled on his doorstep by a bunch of street racers. But after Ronnie called the police officer, it was all resolved quickly.

They are certainly not happy with the mayor in Café Kamperduin. The reason has something to do with the fact that Ronnie had to wait a long time for a catering permit, and that Dales never shows up. They are a lot more positive about the previous mayor, Franc Weerwind. “He just went to the hairdresser here.”

Crime and IJmuiden are no longer strangers. In the 1990s, Willem Endstra built a new marina together with the municipality of Velsen. It never became a successful project, which is why the suspicion always remained that Endstra used the port for money laundering and other unsavory matters.

In recent years, the IJmuiden seaport has also been increasingly in the police’s sights. Last year, agents intercepted 1,522 kilos of cocaine, a record year. Reason for Amsterdam Mayor Halsema to sound the alarm about increased drug smuggling. But according to a group of men in the port, drug smuggling only happens in Rotterdam. Control is too strict here, they say. The open door of the warehouse is quickly closed for safety reasons.

Monique, owner of lunch spot Het Visparadijs, is never afraid in the harbor. In the evening she locks up the entire tent alone and goes home in the dark. In forty years nothing has ever happened. “Those fishermen, they are a special people. Hard workers, wear their hearts on their sleeves, but also very sweet.”

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Things are different for Miranda, who makes a detour especially to sample real cod cheeks at the Fish Paradise. A few months ago a house was shot at in her street. “I thought ‘these are no firecrackers’. But I turned over and went to sleep. That actually says it all, it has become too normal.”

On the other side of the city, in IJmuiden-Oost, the houses look different. Canal diggers used to live here. What started as a modest settlement grew into a lively city with elegant buildings between 1910 and 1940. But just like in other North Holland coastal towns, the Nazis demolished a large number of those houses. After the war, flats were replaced. No higher than three floors, otherwise an elevator would be needed.

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Such as around Kennemerlaan, where Mayor Dales closed the Marbella nightclub after furniture was thrown across the room. Maria (77) has recently started living around the corner, in a senior flat. The first week after the move, a huge fight broke out across the street and a boy was knocked unconscious on his balcony. Maria had to swallow hard when she saw all that. Also because there is a lot of bargaining going on on the square in front of the door. “Not pleasant, but things are going well now.”

People simply have fewer problems here, says Pedro (84). He knows why: “They are sea people. They live a freer life. They move with the sea. And they are used to a storm.”

The residents here are not surprised that the mayor is taking measures. The closed houses, fire bombs and weapons are too bad to ignore, they say here. Mrs Zwitser (79) also understands that the mayor opts for a big red line around the entire city. But this preventive frisking doesn’t sit well with her. “They won’t choose me.”

Things are different for Jasmijn (25). Two weeks ago she moved back to Oud-IJmuiden with her husband after living with her grandmother for a while. When saying goodbye, her grandmother had warned her. Not for the violence, but for the preventive frisking. “‘Your husband is dark,’ she said. ‘Be careful.'”

For three days, NH spoke to more than a hundred residents. The majority of them indicate that there is nothing wrong with ‘their’ IJmuiden and that you can live well and safely there. The IJmuiden resident does not seem impressed by the measures taken by the mayor. Call it age-old fishing mentality or a ‘heart-on-tongue DNA’. They do notice the drug-related violence, because it takes place in front of their homes: but afraid? That’s almost no one.