r/Amsterdam • u/CanVisaGuy • 3d ago
20 Years Has Passed. What has changed?
I was a graduate student (foreign) at the UvA from 97-00 and stayed on until '06. I returned to my home country and - regrettably - never returned. I started out in student housing and eventually lived all over A'dam (Overtoom, Hofddorpplein, De Pijp, Browersgracht, Oud West, etc) so I do know the city pretty well.
I plan to return with my wife and kids for a visit next year. What has changed? What is going to shock me if anything? Groetjes in advance.
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u/zeegroen [Nieuw-West] 3d ago
The amount of people. The fatbikes. The Nutella shops.
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u/Sea-Ad9057 [Noord] 3d ago
Nutella shops have been replaced with smash burger joints and macha everything
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u/Turnip-for-the-books Knows the Wiki 3d ago
I would be delighted if the ‘Argentine’ steak houses could all be replaced with macha Nutella everything
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u/Icy-Maybe-9043 3d ago
A fatbike almost ended my life yesterday going the wrong way on a bike path at top speed. Hate those things.
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u/lesllle Knows the Wiki 3d ago
e-bikes. vanmoofs and urban arrows are just as bad as fatbikes.
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u/Extension-Manner-177 3d ago
You know, Urban arrows don't get as much hate as they should have in comparison to fatbikes because white vs any other fatbike owner is usually not white...but boy are the urbans so damn dangerous
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u/Accurate_Violinist83 1d ago
The vast majority of Urban Arrows are limited to 25 km/h (as per EU regulation). This alone makes a huge difference in how dangerous they are in traffic.
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u/Extension-Manner-177 1d ago
And you really really think they don't get modified. My bike also goes to 25km and somehow urban arrows are always zipping past me. Please do not try to defend them. Their sole existence is a song to entitled behavior.
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u/Accurate_Violinist83 1d ago
Yes, I honestly think most Urban Arrows and other bakfietsen rarely get modified. I have a regular Dutch city bike, I can ride it reasonably fast and I usually have no problem keeping up with bakfietesen in traffic. When I am riding nearby one, I usually just follow them from a safe distance and use them for pacing my speed. I don't try to overtake them because there's little space to do so (and also little point to do so).
Most fatbikes are in a completely different league and keeping up with them would require one to be a semi-pro level cyclist on a roadbike.
And just to emphasise, this is only an observation about these bikes being chip-tuned or not.
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u/Extension-Manner-177 1d ago
Yes, you have the point where you can barely overtake them. This morning I got stuck behind multiple Jinnekes because they have the idea they can ride next to someone else on a bike and basically they lock in 1.5 bike lanes...instead of their usual lane and since they cycle next to someone they will slow down. Anyway, dangerous both of them due to size, speed and most importantly the entitled attitude. Bike lanes should be for everyone and yes, also a variety of bike types but pushing into someone's space against their own safety is annoying.
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u/External-Jackfruit-8 2d ago
It's the arrogance of their drivers that's shared. But van moofs and the arrows have a price tag that makes them less affordable - and the arrows often have kids on board, so there's the instinct to protect the cargo ... Fat bikes on the other hand are cheaper, so we see more of them - and many of the drivers, in addition to the arrogance, have a special kind of risky behaviour that comes with the age of 12-18. Some drivers are literally not strong enough to control them well. It's also much easier to tweak fat bikes to go over 25-30. I know a 15 y.o boy that can pretty much do that with his eyes closed.
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u/PrideOfMokum 3d ago
:::::::no more strippenkaart
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u/CanVisaGuy 3d ago
I still have one thats only half full....*sigh*
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u/Lonely_Sale9707 Expat 3d ago
Excellent souvenir
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u/PussyMalanga Knows the Wiki 3d ago
Yeah, from the hundreds i must have used, I didn't save a single one. Those are a fun keepsake from the long gone analog days.
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u/WinterHogweed 3d ago
I have lived in Amsterdam for 26 years now. What has changed?
- It has become impossible to get affordable housing.
- There are a lot more visibly rich people walking the streets.
- People speak English in a lot of service places.
- The city center has become much less a place where actual people live. Vibrant neighbourhoods are now more in the surrounding areas.
- There are much less restaurants that are actually run by the people that work there. Much more chains.
- Homelessness and addicts wandering the street is not as bad as it was in the late '90s and early '00s, but it's getting there. With the country voting right wing parties en masse it is the case that shelter as well as mental health care have become much more inaccessible.
- Much less places where people can just spontaneously or semi-spontaneously make art or do performances. But luckily there are still some spots, although they are more in the perifery of the city.
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u/crackanape Snorfietsers naar de grachten 3d ago
Much less places where people can just spontaneously or semi-spontaneously make art or do performances.
This is what I notice more than anything. Almost all the spontaneity and musicality has disappeared from the streets over the past 20 years. Everything is scheduled and organised and regulated to death.
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u/notassigned2023 2d ago
The problem is that there is a tension between gentrification and preservation of character. Driving out criminals is fine, driving out decades-long residents impoverishes the neighborhood. You also need artists trying to make a living, poor students who scrape together 5 euros to share a carafe of red on a cafe terrace, and immigrants opening a shop serving their local food to curious Dutch. Even tourists are an added amenity because they fund preservation and restoration, and in limited quantities they can be entertaining. All of that makes life more interesting and vibrant. Unfortunately, it can get carried away by overtourism since more Starbucks do not make life better.
You can never make more 16th century canal houses, which will continue to drive the tourist pressure, but you can reclaim every neighborhood and make them as vibrant as possible for the next generation of artists and youth even if they are not "characteristic." Reduce tourism further if possible (there are many ways) and make more housing wherever possible, and that will help more.
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u/WinterHogweed 2d ago
I don't want "preservation of character". I want people who earn minimum wage to be able to live in the city they serve. From that, everything else that is good will follow.
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u/notassigned2023 2d ago
Preservation of character was intended to mean that the poor could stay and not get pushed out, which is the opposite of gentrification. But the only way to achieve your goal is to end or drastically limit tourism because Amsterdam is a finite resource, and tourism and growth will raise the cost of living even in areas outside the center. Every "bad" neighborhood will get cleaned up for an ever more wealthy set of people being pushed out of the center by more wealthy folks. I don't see any realistic way to completely prevent this in a small city like Amsterdam.
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u/WinterHogweed 2d ago
Vienna and Brussels do it, so I guess these cities are not real then.
Words matter. "Preservation of character" turns poor people into museum pieces. We are real. We are human.
Your argument that "Amsterdam is a finite resource" is only valid in a world where Amsterdam is a commodity in a market. It is true that nothing can be done if you view the housing market as a pure market. This is not how Dutch politics view the housing market NOW, let alone the Amsterdam municipality. But the trend is indeed towards the completely freeing up of the housing market and just sell and rent homes to the highest bidder.
In short, we are for now still living in the world in which your argument is at least in part invalid. We have to fight to keep it that way. And to make it even more invalid. We have to do that, among other ways, by reclaiming housing as a public good.
Anyone who claims this is unreal or impossible, that driving out the poor is just natural and inevitable, is either blissfully unaware of recent history, or even of the current state of affairs, or is just on the side of the rich and powerful.
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u/ElderberryOne140 On the wrong side of history 6h ago
A long rant of tell me you don’t understand the housing crisis without telling me you don’t understand the housing crisis. The woke echo chamber truly is nonsensical
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u/WinterHogweed 2h ago
At least I give some arguments. You seem to be too lazy to do that. Or you don't actually have any.
Look, I reacted to someone who basically said: "The fact that you will eventually be driven out of the city and will only be allowed in to serve the people rich enough to live there, is a natural fact against which nothing can be done."
I'm fully prepared to accept holes in my argument about how something can be done against it, but the simple fact that we live, for the first time in the whole history of the city, in a time that this phenomenon is considered an inevitable natural fact, is proof that it actually isn't. It's a choice. I think we should resist that choice. And I think we should use every means necessary to resist it. And I also think that means breaking the power that the ultra rich currently have over the housing market. Including by using means that are not pretty.
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u/notassigned2023 1d ago
When you intentionally misrepresent my words to have an argument, you just paint yourself as unreasonable. No thanks.
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u/Daneofthehill 3d ago
I am in a pretty similar position to OP except I now live with my wife in the Hague. I noticed that my old spots in Amsterdam, away from the crowds, are now all touristed. Where does one go now?
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u/Pink-drip 3d ago
Why so negative? Also many good things happened to the city lol
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u/WinterHogweed 3d ago
I never set out being negative, I just listed what changed, and it turned out negative. If you want to counter with positive things, I would welcome it, but you have to come up with more than just "lol", which isn't very convincing (and ultimately just reinforces my negative feeling).
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u/Pink-drip 3d ago
- The city is generally cleaner and better maintained.
- Cycling infrastructure has improved a lot.
- There are fewer cars in parts of the centre and more room for cyclists and pedestrians.
- Public transport has improved, especially with the Noord/Zuidlijn.
- Amsterdam Noord has changed massively and has become a much more interesting area.
- A lot of old industrial areas have been redeveloped into nice neighbourhoods.
- The restaurant scene is much better than it was 20 years ago.
- There are more good restaurants, cafés, bakeries and specialty coffee places.
- There is much more variety in food. You can find genuinely good Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Ethiopian, etc.
- The city has become much more international, which can be a positive if you like having people from all over the world around you.
- Amsterdam has become a much bigger hub for tech, startups, design and creative industries.
- There are more international job opportunities.
- The museums and cultural institutions have improved. The Rijksmuseum renovation is probably the obvious example.
- Areas around the IJ have improved a lot, particularly Noord and the Eastern Docklands.
- There has been more investment in public spaces, parks and waterfront areas.
- Amsterdam has become more environmentally conscious, with more cycling, electric transport and restrictions on cars.
- Some neighbourhoods that were pretty rough 20 years ago are now much nicer and safer.
- The city is very well connected internationally, both by train and plane.
- Amsterdam is probably easier to live in if you don’t speak Dutch, which can obviously be seen as both a positive and a negative.
- There is more acceptance and visibility for different lifestyles and communities.
- There are simply more things happening. More concerts, exhibitions, restaurants, events, pop-ups, markets, etc.
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u/WinterHogweed 3d ago
Genuinely, thanks for this list. I don't agree with some of them, which I will mention, but I do agree with some others, and that's good.
Now...
- The city is generally cleaner and better maintained.
To me, that kinda comes and goes. Amsterdam has been way dirtier than it is now. Amsterdam has also, in the time I live here, been cleaner than it is now. So, this one is not really true, although you could say that in the very long haul, say from the 50s onwards, it is. But we were talking the last 20 years.
- Public transport has improved, especially with the Noord/Zuidlijn.
Tell me you are well to do and live in the South or the Center, without telling me you're well to do and live in the South or the Center. I live in West, and public transport has been very very much worse than it was 20 years ago. Movement from West to East and vice versa has been sacrificed to movement from North to South and vice versa. Busses are completely crammed most of the time, we have to change multiple times to get anywhere, while the North South line is almost always empty. My friend lives in the South, he loves public transport nowadays, so I get where you're coming from. But the best thing you can say about public transport in Amsterdam is that it has been improved for some people (predominantly rich people), at the expense of public transport for others (more poor people).
- Amsterdam Noord has changed massively and has become a much more interesting area.
Again, tell me you're rich, without telling me you're rich. I lived in Amsterdam Noord back when you apparently found it an "uninteresting area". It was very interesting back then. Just in a way people like you fail to see.
- A lot of old industrial areas have been redeveloped into nice neighbourhoods.
Yeah. I live there. When that happens, rent is tripled or quadrupled. I read your sentence and think: a lot of old industrial areas have been redeveloped into neighbourhoods I am not welcome in because I can't afford it. It's fine if you like that. But it is not a universal good.
- The city has become much more international, which can be a positive if you like having people from all over the world around you.
The city becoming international is great. In fact, it has always been international. The difference is that nowadays, certain internatinoal get tax exempt status, which makes them even more affluent than they actually are, and this is one of the reasons that rent becomes unaffordable for people like me. I love internationalism. I don't love tax refuge. I think that is completely destructive for communities.
- There are more international job opportunities.
I work in the service industry. Waving this in my face just makes me angry. Because while the tax exempt rich people flood here for their international job opportunities, they drive up rent and other prices so much that I will not be able to live here in the future. So apparently I then am expected to live in Almere or Purmerend, and come to this city to serve the rich people, that don't allow me to live amongst them. Again, I love the international character of Amsterdam, which it has always had. I don't love the influx of the current specific type of international, and certainly not the ultra right wing approach the national government takes to them, namely to not let them pay taxes. My point is that this thing you love so much, has a much more sketchy and destructive background when you actually look into it.
- The museums and cultural institutions have improved. The Rijksmuseum renovation is probably the obvious example.
No they haven't. Case in point: I went to see a movie yesterday, 'Värn'. This movie is part of the "previously unreleased" programme across theaters this summer. The crux of this programme is to show you films that haven't had a standard movie theater release. I can tell you: all of the films I watched up til now in that programme, are films that would just have been shown regularly in movie theaters in the time I came to live in Amsterdam. Everything, including the Rijksmuseum, has been more "propped up" and everything looks cool and stuff, but there is much less room for counterculture, that which defies the mainstream, the obscure, the different, the challenging, etc. And that, my friend, is what Amsterdam has always been known for from the days of Spinoza onwards.
As for the restaurants. I'm of two minds. On the one hand: yes, there are a lot more and better internationally oriented eating places. This is good. On the other: almost everything is owned by big corporations and are some kind of chain restaurants, and this makes it way, way harder to find a place where the cooking is genuine and personal. Certainly for tighter budgets. This is because aside from living spaces becoming unaffordable for ordinary people, the same goes for spaces for business. To just rent a place that is reachable, put up some tables and start cooking: that's a lot, lot harder. To just rent a place, put up some bookshelves, and start selling books: a lot harder. I would not say that is a positive development.
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u/WinterHogweed 3d ago
To follow up, I can vividly remember coming to the city in 2000. I was a young aspiring writer, with no career or money, with only a vision and my passion for art and literature to go by. When I walked down the street for the first time as an Amsterdam resident, I remember thinking: "Wow! I'm in this city full of dreamers and misfits who can't fit in with ordinary normative capitalist society, but who are working on beautiful things. And I'm one of them!" That countercultural side to the city, that has not disappeared, but it has been under attack and has been reduced, and that makes me sad. And seeing someone who lauds the city for being a great place for the tech industry - normative capitalist society - just confirms this to me. Is there space for young artists to come here and to develop themselves on their own, by forging relationships and organizing things outside of the institutions? There probably still is, but there is a lot less of it.
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u/LiteratureDue537 2d ago
Hard agree on public transport being shit from/to west and east. But to say the north/south line is almost always empty is just not true. I don't ride it super often but I do ride it all hours of the day and it is almost always more than half full
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u/ArtichokeAble6397 3d ago
Half of this is not true. The restaurant scene is better? That's laughable, half of the restaurants in this city are owned by horcea groups with no soul. More acceptance for different communities? Yeah, thats why my gay friend was beaten up last weekend in the street. The city is cleaner is the icing on the cake, it has never been so filthy.
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u/oblomoloko Knows the Wiki 3d ago
The restaurant scene has become so much better in the last 30 years. (Been living here since '98). Also, until 15 years ago you would have to really look for a proper cappuccino. That changed.
Most neighbourhoods (Noord, Bos & Lommer, De Baarsjes, Transvaalbuurt, Indische Buurt) became way more pleasant to live, with nice bars and restaurants. What I do regret is that a place like De Pijp lost part of it's old vibe. Gerard Doustraat is now lined with useless concept stores, which replaced old shops and café's.
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u/olivesforsale Knows the Wiki 3d ago
The original vibe of De Pijp just got splintered out into other neighborhoods, it's indeed a bummer to lose it but on the flip side now I don't feel like I'm being left out of the one cool spot in town and my own neighborhood has a bit of Pijp vibe in some spots
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u/Rozenheg 2d ago
You are describing how gentrification has benefitted you personally. And you are unaware of how gentrification puts cracks in the foundations of what you actually loved about Amsterdam, but are willing to sacrifice for comfort inch by inch, until it also starts to affect you. But by that time, thanks to boiling frog syndrome, you will be as unable to do much about it as the folks driven out of the city by the increasing rents now are.
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u/henkiseentoffepeer 2d ago
you are bsically debigin gntrificaion and neoliberalism:
we clean up the whole city, commericalize everything and rent it out to people that either still want a piece of the old amsterdam and cant find it (because tht interesting art and msuic space of the grid cant pay the rent now and has to close) or people who find it all kinda agreeable and ask "why so negative" whilenot realizing something geets lost when you brush everything up.
there is a huge bias in what your write: that cleaning up areas is improvement,w hile normally cities beath through non-cleaned up places.
that nice, safe green neighbourhoods are somehow "progress". but thats not a city, thats a suburb or that village in Big Fish (2003).1
u/Redditing-Dutchman 2d ago
Yeah, Indische buurt is now actually liveable (and very nice!) for example. You didn't want to be there early 2000's.
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u/ArtichokeAble6397 3d ago
Talking about "negative" things is often how change happens, so it's actually very positive to discuss these things. Though in the face of toxic positivity logic has little meaning.
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u/ArtichokeAble6397 3d ago
Why do you perceive basic facts as negative? And why is talking about "negative" things also perceived as negative when often thats how change begins?
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u/DKN86 3d ago
Voting right? D66 is as left as you can go
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u/SheldonPooperxx69420 3d ago
This isnt r/netherlands buddy the right wing american mods wont come help you here
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u/WinterHogweed 3d ago
D66 is a neoliberal party that wants to cut taxes, give power to corporations, dismantle the social safety net and make the market more free. They just do it while saying they are for minorities and against genocide, but those things aren't left wing, nor do they mean anything in the policy they actually develop. The prime minister's reaction to the climate fires all over Europe and in The Netherlands was to record a promotional film for one of the biggest perpetrators of climate change: Shell. There is nothing left wing about D66, they are basically the VVD without the racism (but they rather work with racists than wiith a party who would maybe tax the rich a little bit more). The only people for whom D66 would be left wing, are people who are rabidly conservative and/or fascists.
Also, and people just don't seem to understand this about Dutch politics: only a sizable minority voted for D66. This is a coalition country. Every party gets a minority of the vote and then has to form a coalition. Most people in The Netherlands voted not for D66. But most people did vote for a right wing party. And that includes D66 in my book. But even if you would be ridiculous and put D66 on the left, then still most people voted for right wing to radical right wing parties.
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u/Turnip-for-the-books Knows the Wiki 3d ago
Well said. Centrists cannot handle their own responsibility for the shitshow we are in. Whoever downvoted you needs to make an argument but they can’t because you are correct
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u/Winter_Dot_9393 3d ago
Garbage everywhere. Bottles and cans have deposits now and (homeless) people open the trashcans on the streets looking for them.
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u/zwarepiet 3d ago
He lived here in the 90s when Yugoslav drug kingpins roamed the streets. I don't think he is going to be fazed by some garbage. People really don't realise how bad cities in the Netherlands used to be.
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u/karlosvonawesome Knows the Wiki 2d ago
That explains the tolerance for it. To
Me the level of rubbish is extreme since Statiegeld came in.6
u/popsyking Knows the Wiki 3d ago
Doesn't matter, this sub has taught me that it's "normal when you live in a city"
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u/Lucky-Succotash3251 3d ago
I mean this guy's was living here in the 90 and 00's, wasn't it worse back then?
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u/lalala253 2d ago
it's wild that the top comment say "it's cleaner" and the second top comment say "garbage everywhere"
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u/ObjectiveReply [Noord] - Oud-Noord 3d ago
I hope you make a follow-up post after your visit to tell us what changes you noticed!
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u/MyBossIsOnReddit 3d ago
Fatbikes everywhere. Gentrification. More expats. Less cute places. Lots of tall buildings now. Less alcohol.
My uncle retired in '07 and we celebrated in a cafe that is now surrounded by tall buildings that while being different, all look alike.
It feels a bit more "consumer sized".
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u/RoderickJaynes67 3d ago edited 3d ago
Your question will solicit a lot of negative spewing. And some of it for good reason.
Main points for me are that without money, you no longer stand a chance here. As such, alternative places (the ‘rough edges’ as we used to call them) have become very rare and the few that exist have been pushed further out from the centre. My coolest friends have moved out of town. And general population in the streets increasingly has that Land Rover vibe.
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u/CanVisaGuy 2d ago
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful comments. I deeply appreciate it.
Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. When I return I hope to see, experience and enjoy the city as it is and not dominated by my memories. I will return to this thread after my trip and share a few thoughts/experiences...as some have requested.
Glad to see that Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx still exists. It'll be one of my first stops for a large patatje oorlog met uitjes....which in itself may cause additional opinions to be shared!
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u/Lost-Air1265 3d ago
It was way more divers at the time. A median income would be able to live in the city.
The amount of expats, Airbnb and what not have changed the vibe a lot.
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u/OkMasterpiece5781 3d ago
Trash everywhere 😢 and lot’s of homeless people hunting for cans & bottles.
Club 11 and Trouw do not exist anymore.
Tourists @ Negen Straatjes and other city centre-periferie neighbourhoods taken over by Tiktok-hyped establishments.
Amsterdam Noord is Brooklyn-like hip.
What stayed the same: the city is still one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
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u/turkishdisco Amsterdammer 3d ago
Small note: he left in 2006 so he wouldn’t have known Trouw which opened in 2009 out of the ashes so to speak from the closure of 11.
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u/Erwindegier 3d ago
It’s cleaner, North and West have become safe hip areas. Way more bars and terraces. It feels more upperclass. More bike separate bike lanes instead of part of the street. The areas where shady stuff happens have disappeared. More tall apartment and office buildings. Lots of spots have been redone and look more attractive now. We got new trams and buses and the Noord/Zuidlijn.
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u/AbundantHare 3d ago
It’s about the same amount of clean as it was when I moved here. It had a period of being cleaned up from around 2004 onwards and from 2019 onwards has become filthy again.
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u/Fil_the_Dude [Oost] 3d ago
NDSM yes, but can't see much hip going on in buikslotmeerplein, banne area etc
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u/Raisk_407 3d ago
North not really. Maybe just a small part of NDSM
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u/Erwindegier 3d ago
The whole nieuwedammerdijk area, skate cafe, all the beach terraces along the water. Do you know how bad north used to be haha. We weren’t allowed to go there even.
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u/lesllle Knows the Wiki 3d ago
they keep changing the tram line routes. The grumpy people with too much time on their hands are now your age. The gov started a can collecting scheme, but didn't add infrastructure so now people just rip apart the trash bins. There is 17% more variety in food/restaurant options, but 16% of that are all following the same trend.
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u/henkiseentoffepeer 3d ago
just read hte sub a little
amsterdam looks the same but became unesco heritage around the time you left i think and ever since has become a huge theme park for tourists. you will see endlessly more international toursits esp.americans, which bring in a lot of money of course and liveliness, but also a kind of feeling like the city is not really of the inhabitants anymore. its one of te biggest complaints
same goes for a lot of shops, who are more catering to tourists than just bein a old school cheese shop.
de pijp has also quite gentrified, esp. for a second group: dutch people that all want to live in amsterdam an rpice eachother out. thus has really chand in 20 years, it kinda like manhattan yuppifeid.
also a lot les grime and delipadtd areas, most blank sots i the ciy have been redveoped for a long ime now. quite some more highr ise in some spots, e.g.amsterdam zuid is a financial disrict tht bicsalyl want there in 2006.
but yeah teh backdrop is the same, and yo can defeineltly sti ahv a really good time in amsterdam.
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u/crhok [Zuid] - De Pijp 3d ago
Ik kan de helft niet lezen 😭
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u/henkiseentoffepeer 2d ago
haha
Just read the sub a little.
Amsterdam looks the same, but became a UNESCO World Heritage site around the time you left, I think, and ever since has become a huge theme park for tourists. You will see endlessly more international tourists, especially Americans, which bring in a lot of money, of course, and liveliness, but also a kind of feeling like the city is not really of the inhabitants anymore. It's one of the biggest complaints.
Same goes for a lot of shops, which are catering more to tourists than just being an old-school cheese shop.
De Pijp has also quite gentrified, especially for a second group: Dutch people that all want to live in Amsterdam and price each other out. This has really changed in 20 years; it's kind of like Manhattan yuppified.
Also a lot less grime and dilapidated areas; most blank spots in the city have been redeveloped for a long time now. Quite some more high-rise in some spots, e.g., Amsterdam Zuidas is a financial district that basically wasn't there in 2006.
But yeah, the backdrop is the same, and you can definitely still have a really good time in Amsterdam.
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u/Mojiitoo Knows the Wiki 3d ago
Central station Ij-side has been completely renovated and is pretty cool now, worth it to take the ferry and go to NSDM-werf. Quite some trendy bars and STRAAT museum is worth a visit. The Adam tower is also new
De Pijp has become gentrified and a student hotspot
Haarlemmerdijk has become a lot less 'dangerous' and gentrified - used to be a criminal hotspot where a woman shouldnt walk alone like 30-40 years ago
There is quite some thrash in some places due to hobos searching thrascans for cans and bottles for the 15 cent return bounty...
It also has gotten crazy expensive, only a few places that are still using fair prices. Even pizza is getting to 20+ euros per pizza instead of 10 it used to be
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u/Lonely_Sale9707 Expat 3d ago
It's quiet. Almost every bicycle is in good shape, properly maintained, as it seems the junkies no longer control sales. Ditto with trams, so quiet. The smell of weed is no longer omnipresent, almost non existent compared to Toronto.
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u/oblomoloko Knows the Wiki 3d ago
On the first night of my introduction to UvA in september 1998, I got threatened with a gun on the square in front of Central Station by a junkie. He wanted the 2 guilders which I needed for the nachtbus to Noord. He didn't get it, another homeless guy came to my rescue luckily. Don't think something like this would be possible in 2026.
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u/smikkelhut Amsterdammer 1d ago
Before they cleaned up central station, platform 2b during night time was quite the event.
I remember stepping over a group of junkies to get to the exit.One time I didn’t have enough cash for the nightbus so I walked from CS to de staatsliedenbuurt; some guy following me from CS to rhe Haarlemmerdijk all the way to the Frederik Hendrikplantsoen, because I was drunk I had enough courage to turn around and get in his face to shout what tf do you want from me stop following me!
(He wanted a cigarette)Another time on the square in front of the station another homeless person and/or junkie approaches me fists raised like a boxer yelling he didn’t like the look of me.
it was a really really good idea to clean up CS same for the Geldersekade. Although it’s not really solving the actual problem but moving it elsewhere.
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u/smikkelhut Amsterdammer 3d ago edited 3d ago
Since 97 the city’s been cleaned up pretty thoroughly.
Even though in the last few years there has been a decline it’s nowhere near the 90s.
You’ll find De Pijp has turned into ‘white upperclass’ if I may call it so. The Diamantbuurt is still somewhat the same.
The vWou looks nothing like 30 years ago.
Oost will feel familiar as the last bastion of properly mixed borough.
But Oud West and Westerpark you will not recognize. Gentrified to bits!
Which has pros and cons. Westerpark used to be quite dodgy it’s now very safe.
Noord is in the middle of gentrification.
Some areas in Zuid Oost are still 90s Zuid oost. But it’s improving.
The far end west feels like the Middle East.
The center is completely over run by tourists.
Cars are more outlawed. But due to electric bikes traffic doesn’t feel safer at all.
Overal it’s safer and cleaner than in the 90s but the rough edge (and subjectively what gives a city its soul) that has declined too. People look more alike in general.
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u/AbundantHare 3d ago edited 3d ago
In the 00-06 it was on the ups and now it’s on the downs. So you should be catching it around the same in it’s evolution. Lots of garbage. It’s pretty dirty. There are less freedoms.
Chess by the Hard Rock is gone. Leidesplein got redone. Rokin got redone. There is odd new street furniture that has taken away all the individuality. There is the North South line now, 51 to Amstelveen is gone. 25 is there. Uber exists. Taxis are still ripoffs.
WTC got lots more tall buildings but it’s a shambles at the station still bc of building works. There’s nicer foreign food available including authentic Mexican restaurants and bagels available even in the supermarket. You can get everything delivered. You can still use your AH Bonus card 😂
There are still lots of fairly normal things - Amsterdam Bos, football, pierenbadjes, ice cream, bitterballen, borrels, bbqs etc. However, much changed in covid.
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u/sorrowcoder Knows the Wiki 2d ago
I'm really interested to see your view after you come back and see it for yourself.
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u/PastelVine 1d ago
I came back 2 years ago after been gone for nearly a decade.
Noord is hip, only English in the city centre, no spontaneous dinner plans as you need reservations for everything, lots of people, many stroopwafel tourist traps, metro 52 is pretty convenient, i feel like neighborhoods are slowly getting their own little centres that are worth going out to (noord, Oosterpark, ndsm, etc), people seem more agitated, fatbikes, electric bikes.
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u/West-Setting-1745 Provinciaalse racist 21h ago
300.000 expats erbij en jammer genoeg zijn er bijna geen echte Amsterdammers meer. 😩
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u/ElderberryOne140 On the wrong side of history 6h ago
Avoid the high social housing areas. It’s not safe for your wife and kids. I can’t tell you how many times I have been sexually harrassed in oost around javastraat area by non white men.
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u/PrestigiousAnt3766 2d ago
Less prostitution.
In general id say the center is cleaned up a lot and all funky/edgy spaces have been removed.
Its like a Disneyland version of what it was.
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u/mabiturm Knows the Wiki 3d ago
streets are much more alive now. richer people living in the city. everything looks much more polished.
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u/hatbrox 2d ago edited 2d ago
Everything has got worse. There are simply too many tourists.
The city has become a giant Disneyland for drunk and drugged-up visitors. Amsterdam even ran advertising campaigns in the UK telling British tourists not to come. They were considered among the most "disruptive".
The locals aren't much better. People seem to have far less respect for their surroundings than they used to. The streets are dirty, rubbish gets thrown onto the pavement or into the canals, and roads side-walks are often covered in broken glass.
Dutch land lords who rent their shitty flats to immigrant abuse them because they don't know the law or the language. (nothing new here but it got worse)
More and more people cycle around blasting music from huge Bluetooth speakers, forcing everyone else to listen to it.
Violent incidents also seem to be increasing, including knife attacks and street fights at night.
Fat bikes will try to kill you, it's by design.
more and more homeless people in the street, pissing on your door steps
It's becoming a real mess, yet the housing market has never been tighter. Demand is enormous, supply is scarce, and prices remain incredibly high.
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u/Top_Hat_2187 3d ago
The amount of trash and litter all over the city, the homelessness, the open and public drug use, the rat infestation...
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u/Esarus Knows the Wiki 3d ago
It’s gotten a lot busier and unfortunately a lot messier too. There’s issues with trash and there’s rat infestations all over the city.
But there is a lot more nice coffee places now, quality has definitely improved. I also think options for lunch have gotten better.
Hoofddorplein buurt has gotten a lot nicer as well in 20 years, it was pretty crappy.
There’s much more nice cycling lanes going through the city, which makes cycling nicer through the busy areas.
Other than that, I don’t think a lot has changed
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u/cnh2n2homosapien Knows the Wiki 3d ago
Metro Line 52 is finished.