Stadsmarinier Sana el Fizazi is a household name in the Rotterdam Hillesluis, now only the neighborhood is even safer

A resident walks into the district post of city marine Sana el Fizazi (48). He waves his Rotterdam pass and a telephone. “The pass doesn’t work,” says the man. “The credit is not there. I called the council, but it doesn’t work.” El Fizazi listens and nods. Then the man starts to cry. “Sit down,” she points to a chair. She puts her hands on his shoulders and looks at him. “Now I’m in conversation, but we’ll call later,” she promises. “Do you want an umbrella?” El Fizazi puts one in his hands.

El Fizazi is one of the nine city marines in Rotterdam, in that role she has to improve the safety and sense of security of residents in Hillesluis. The district has the lowest perception of safety in the city, according to figures from the municipality. ‘It will never happen by itself’, reads a sign in the district post. “That is true,” says El Fizazi, who started two years ago.

Shootings and corona riots had a huge impact on feelings of safety, she says. Visibility is very important to her. El Fizazi is regularly in the district post where residents and entrepreneurs can walk in. The mail made them cozy. She painted one wall green and she serves coffee on a silver tea tray from Morocco. She listens to problems, puts a hand on a shoulder, cycles around the neighborhood. El Fizazi is a household name. Many residents know her, know where to find her.

The willingness to report is low, she says. “When I am caught with drugs, I often think: ‘residents must have already seen that something was not right’. Because they don’t trust the government, they don’t report. By having an accessible presence, I hope that residents will talk about their concerns.”

Help at community centers

As a 12-year-old El Fizazi emigrated from Morocco to Delfshaven. As the eldest of six children, she helped her father – who had difficulty reading and writing – with the tax return. She turned to community centers for help.

When she turned 16, a contribution of 1,000 guilders had to be paid for school. “Too expensive, my parents thought. “You’re not going to be the new Lubbers,” my father said. With the help of youth support, she found the ‘reimbursement for study costs’ and was able to continue learning, but also her brothers and sisters. “Then I experienced that if you don’t know the way, you can count on help from the government.”

El Fizazi often hears from residents: ‘they don’t do anything anyway’. “I then try to better understand what the complaint is so that I can also explain why something is not happening.” For example, the police cannot be present day and night in a certain street. Resident Ashraf Din felt that there were too few police in his street. “We had had a violent shooting and residents felt unsafe,” he says. “The feeling was that the municipality did nothing and that the police had other priorities.” The city marines contacted residents and discussed the insecurity. “Residents wanted to do something about it themselves,” she says. A neighborhood watch team was set up.

Eight residents walk through the neighborhood two to three times a week, El Fizazi walks along regularly. They wear yellow jackets. “In this way we try to give residents a feeling of safety,” says Din. They pay attention to waste, loitering young people and unsafe situations such as drug use on the street. “We report that,” says Din. Once a month El Fizazi discusses with the residents what has been done with the reports. Din: “We feel that we are taken seriously. We put a lot of free time into this, Sana shows what we do it for.”

Two banners hang in front of the district post: one from the municipality and one from the police. “It is put out by some community officers when they are present,” says El Fizazi. Neighborhood officer Aart van der Kooij sits at the oval table at the back of the office. He shows pictures on his phone that he took that weekend around the Essalam Mosque. “Visitors were all parked here on the grass,” he points out.

El Fizazi nods. During Ramadan it is extremely busy in the mosque, which causes parking nuisance in the neighborhood. “Perhaps we could refer more actively to parking garages?” she suggests. “Or else refer to the car parks around De Kuip?” Later, El Fizazi contacts the parking expert of the municipality and the administration of the mosque.

Two new ‘Boulevard Stewards’ enter the district post to warm up after a tour of the district. The stewards, appointed at the request of El Fizazi, have been welcoming visitors to the Beijerlandselaan since 1 April. They maintain contact with entrepreneurs and watch out for loitering and nuisance. “There are still garbage bags outside everywhere. It doesn’t look like it,” said flight attendant Sheila. “But if we address the entrepreneur about it…” “…they say that residents have done it”, El Fizazi finishes the sentence. Sheila nods. “In the coming weeks we will visit all entrepreneurs with a form that once again contains all the rules about offering waste,” says El Fizazi.

Confused persons

Litter is one of the three main problems in the district, says the city marine. “If it looks dirty, it also feels unsafe.” There is a large plastic sign in the shape of a garbage bag in the neighborhood post. It is covered with yellow post-its with texts such as: ‘reward if you don’t throw anything on the street’, ‘camera surveillance’. It is an idea that was devised together with residents.

The second challenge is the many young people in the neighbourhood: 4,000 out of a total of 12,100 residents in Hillesluis, says El Fizazi. “Until recently, there were mainly activities that attracted boys. We barely had a look at the girls. Now there is also a female youth worker and therefore more contact with girls.” Most of the young people are doing well. “But the contact could be better. We have to find the connection even more, know what is going on.”

The third problem is the confused people in the neighbourhood. “Sometimes that also gives rise to insecurity, for example when they walk down the street screaming.”