City Planning in Amsterdam

Amsterdam was built on wet marshlands filled with swamps, lakes, and soggy peat (www.lonelyplanet.com). Although there was a Roman settlement where the modern city was built, Amsterdam really owes its origin to 12th century dam-building farmers and fishermen who drained the swamps and built canals and dikes to control the encroaching sea water.

The city grew because of its natural harbor and strategic location between the North and Baltic seas and the trading ports of southern Europe.

As money flowed in divisions between the newly rich Protestants and the Catholic aristocrats allied with the Spanish who occupied the region at the time resulted in Holland's independence in 1579. From then until 1740 the country enjoyed a Golden Age, becoming the dominant sea power in Europe, with Dutch explorers making major voyages of discovery and conquering new lands for the empire.

The French and English eventually eclipsed the Dutch. Industrialization replaced fishing and the sea trade in the 20th century as the prime economic focus.

By the 1960s Amsterdam was earning its reputation as the most toler

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icy that promoted neighborhood councils, the construction of affordable housing, tolerance for drugs, a legalized sex industry, and the legal recognition of gay couples. This is the exception rather than the rule even in Europe. As a Dutch city planner writes: "When reading the urban studies literature, it is hard to escape the conclusion that urban movements have little impact on the built environment" (Pruijt 2002). This is not surprising. Constructing buildings, highways, and other large-scale physical structures are among the most expensive projects in human society. Since money and power almost always go hand in hand, it is not hard to see why those holding the reins of power nearly always get their way. Large-scale mobilization of the populace against a project supported by the elite is always difficult, because there are rarely city-wide issues that unify urban protest, since a variety of interests are always involved, such as the natural antagonism of landlords and tenants. Therefore it is noteworthy that activists in Amsterdam successfully protested the construction of large buildings and urban freeways, and pressured the city council to accept anti-displacement policies to prevent gentrification. The old city of
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Approximate Word count = 1409
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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