GIVE US VIBRANT NIGHTLIFE, ATTRACTIVE STREETS, AND SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE

I am anti violence, but pro parties. On the first of December last year, I was looking down at Kruisplein from one of the uppermost floors of the Millennium Tower. A jubilant crowd was celebrating the Moroccan football team’s win and progression to the next round of the World Cup play-offs. How wonderful it was to see this public space, otherwise dominated by cars and trams, being used for a party. Later that evening, sadly, things went pear-shaped and the police had to intervene.

Early one morning a month later, I was walking through the Rotterdam Central District, inaugurating 2023. I made a circuit of the clubs that could reopen to celebrate the new year. To refresh your memory: this time last year, the Netherlands was still in a ‘hard lockdown’. There were queues outside Perron and Toffler and there were lively crowds at Biergarten, BIRD and Mono. Bars and nightclubs were taking their responsibility seriously.

How do we hold onto that vibrancy – peacefully – in a landscape that for the rest is dominated by anonymous office blocks and lacklustre frontage? By this I mean the shop window displays, front doors of homes and the hotel and restaurant lobbies at street level. Good frontage lends streets a nice ambiance, making them pleasant to stroll through. It’s clear to anyone that RCD is doing rather poorly on this score, worse even than East Berlin before the Wall came down, with the biggest offenders being the car park entryways and exits on Delftseplein and Delftsestraat.

To inject the colour and energy RCD so urgently needs calls for the intervention of a ‘frontage and night mayor’. These people exist. Take Thys Boer and Tony Wijntuin, both familiar names hereabouts. As the founder of N8W8 Rotterdam, Thys – who last spring graced the cover of RCD Magazine – is a strong contender for future city night mayor. N8W8 is an independent council for city nightlife that’s campaigning under the catchy slogan ‘No Day without Night’ for good, open and accessible nightlife throughout Rotterdam, including in RCD. I would urge: precisely in RCD. Tony was a speaker on 1 December last year on one of the topmost floors of the Millennium Tower. Currently, he is doing a study on how we can enliven the frontage in this area.

I propose that these two put their heads together, with reinforcement from powerhouse Nina Hooimeijer, the driving force behind BIRD. After all, three know more than two, and this former Rotterdam businesswoman of the year can be our deal-maker. This trio won’t have an easy job, but maybe a good slogan will get the ball rolling. Got a catchy one-liner?