Nieuw-West

The ‘old’ districts Centrum and Noord perform well; the recently merged districts acceptably, according to a poll among 100 district council members carried out by News from Amsterdam.

In Centrum and Zuid, 4 in 5 respondents say that their district performs well. In the new districts Nieuw-West, Oost, West and Zuid, this applies to only 1 in 10. Here, a majority says the district performs acceptably and 1 in 5 say performance is bad. Zuidoost is in-between.

About half the district council members have a positive opinion of how the media cover district politics, according to a poll among 100 district council members carried out by News from Amsterdam. Respondents in Zuidoost are most likely to be dissatisfied with the media.

Council members not only tend to think the media pay too little attention to district politics, they also think this is done in a one-sided way. Communications of the administration are uncritically reported and opposition parties are too sparingly asked for their opinion. Little research is done, according to a council member in Noord: “The media aren’t all that critical here. Often, they simply publish the press releases we send, without any criticism.”

The Complaints Centre on Undesirable Landlord Behaviour is registering a rise in complaints, the organisation indicates in its annual report. Complaints vary from deception to outright intimidation. The rise can be explained by improved record keeping, but landlords also appear to become increasingly impudent.

Someone who appealed to the rent tribunal was told by the owner ‘that he would make the tentant’s life a living hell and that he also knew people who were willing to take care of that’. Other tenants who appealed against the rent saw their central heating removed, even though it was -10 C outside.