Amsterdam to expel nuisance neighbours

[Super Nova]

Amsterdam is to create villages where nuisance neighbours and anti-social tenants will be exiled from the city and rehoused in caravans or containers with "minimal services" under constant police supervision

While I love this city, this approach is just plan silly and social engineering that will result in disaster if it goes ahead.

A scum city will fulfil it's name if it was launched.

It was a mistake in Sydney to build suburb after suburb of housing comission only. The new approach in Briton is to ensure there is a mix of people in any suburb, they made the same mistake. Imagine the chaos of a whole town or suburb full of scum only. You are building a criminal town and expect an very poor result. Hell, we may as well go one step further and have a prision city like in movies like "Escape from New York".

This is not right wing, it is social engineering at it's worst. I do have some sympathy with the problem but not the solution.



Amsterdam is to create villages where nuisance neighbours and anti-social tenants will be exiled from the city and rehoused in caravans or containers with "minimal services" under constant police supervision.

The new camps have been dubbed "scum villages" because the plan echoes a proposal from Geert Wilders, the leader of a populist right-wing party, for special units to deal with persistent troublemakers.

"Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighbourhood and sent to a village for scum," he suggested last year. "Put all the trash together."

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan ... "This is the world turned upside down". Photo: Supplied

The Dutch capital already has a squad of municipal officials to identify the worst offenders for a compulsory six-month course on how to behave. Social housing problem families or tenants who do not show an improvement or refuse to go to the special units face eviction and homelessness.

Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam's mayor, has tabled the plan to tackle 13,000 complaints of anti-social behaviour every year. He complained that long-term harassment often led to law-abiding tenants, rather than their nuisance neighbours, being driven out.

"This is the world turned upside down," the mayor said at the weekend.

The project also involves setting up a hotline and system for victims to report their problems to the authorities.

A spokesman for the mayor denied the new projects would be punishment camps for "scum", but stressed that the units would aim to enforce good behaviour.

"The aim is not to reward people who behave badly with a new five-room home with a south-facing garden. This is supposed to be a deterrent," he said.

The tough approach taken by Mr van der Laan appears to jar with Amsterdam's famous tolerance for prostitution and soft drugs but reflects hardening attitudes to routine anti-social behaviour that falls short of criminality.

There are already several small trial projects in the Netherlands, including in Amsterdam, where 10 shipping container homes have been set aside for offenders, under 24-hour supervision from social workers and police.

The new policy will come into effect in January, when the first offenders will be moved to the new units.

In the 19th century, troublemakers were moved to special villages in Drenthe and Overijssel outside Amsterdam. The villages were rarely successful, becoming sink estates for the lawless.

"We have learned from the past," said the mayor's spokesman.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/amsterda ... z2E76ZOi83

[Black Orchid]

[Black Orchid]

These ones are already in use for student housing

[freediver]

Just think of the potential for conducting sociology experiments. In fact, this is one.

[mantra]

Amsterdam is to create villages where nuisance neighbours and anti-social tenants will be exiled from the city and rehoused in caravans or containers with "minimal services" under constant police supervision

While I love this city, this approach is just plan silly and social engineering that will result in disaster if it goes ahead.

A scum city will fulfil it's name if it was launched.

It was a mistake in Sydney to build suburb after suburb of housing comission only. The new approach in Briton is to ensure there is a mix of people in any suburb, they made the same mistake. Imagine the chaos of a whole town or suburb full of scum only. You are building a criminal town and expect an very poor result. Hell, we may as well go one step further and have a prision city like in movies like "Escape from New York".

This is not right wing, it is social engineering at it's worst. I do have some sympathy with the problem but not the solution.

It doesn't work well the other way either - by mixing the misfits and outcasts with ordinary people trying to get on with their lives. NSW has been doing this for a couple of decades with all sorts of minorities, but it creates a lot of stress to those who have to tolerate it.

Perhaps Amsterdam needs somewhere to put those damaged souls who have smoked too much legal pot. The experiment obviously hasn't worked and now these people are incapable of contributing to society.

If it works out to be cost effective - then "scum city" could be a precedent for other nations with similar problems.

[Rorschach]

Interesting idea.
Got good and bad points.
mantra is right re mixing "scum" with "normal" people.
Will be interesting to see the result.
Will they get worse?
Will they suddenly realise the error of their ways?
Will they gang together in mass anarchy?
Who'll' be the Dook (Duke)?

[Super Nova]

There will be a Duke, there always is.

I bet there will not be a ...

[Rorschach]

One of my all time favourite characters... pity about the other movie.

[IQS.RLOW]

I heard he was dead...

[Rorschach]