To the front page

11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

2008 Archive

2007 Archive

2006 Archive

2005 Archive

Amsterdam wants rid of ADM free space

Alex van Veen

19 November 2006 – At the initiative of Alderman Lodewijk Asscher, the left-wing Amsterdam administration intends to destroy the cultural free space ADM. This location, internationally known for its Robodock Festival, must make room for a controversial inland port.

Against the background of an investment of millions of euros, alderman Asscher (Social-Democrats) wants to create forty mooring places for inland vessels at the squatted ADM terrain at the Hornweg in Amsterdam West. In order to do so, the municipality will have to do business with companies including Amstellino BV and Chidda Vastgoed BV, companies that are on the Van Traa list of possible stakeholders in criminal real estate firms and organisations in the Netherlands.

During the first stage, the Port of Amsterdam will try to reach an agreement with the current owner on the use of the port located at the 42 hectare terrain, in order to set in movement an ill-substantiated and financially risky development. During the second stage, the rest of the terrain will be bought.

The terrain was bought in 1997 for the modest amount of 13 million euro by Bertus Lüske, a dubious and by now assassinated estate agent. At the time, Amsterdam decided not to use its right to acquire the terrain at a low price.

DUBIOUS MOTIVE
“Because it now has to pay a disproportionate price (80 million euro) for this until recently uninteresting and heavily polluted terrain to companies that should long ago have been investigated under criminal properties legislation, the Amsterdam municipality may again lose tens of millions of euros as a result of negligence”, the squatters of the ADM terrain say.

For Amsterdam, according to the squatters, has a reputation of failed investments of millions of euros in the ports. “Think only of the 700 million euro that was spent on the still hardly used and still uneconomic Ceres Terminal”.

A new and relevant future port development at the ADM terrain, supported by an urban vision, is now “subjected completely to a very dubious and not cost-effective economic argument”. The current residents and users are therefore not inclined to move for a “wild and ill-conceived plan of the ambitious career-politician Asscher, that will not benefit Amsterdam”.

The former ADM shipyard was squatted in 1997 and occupied by a large group of artists, adventurers and free thinkers. The successful Robodock festival, which moved in 2005 to the NDSM terrain, came into existence here. Every year, festivals are held at the ADM terrain, including the Children’s Dream Festival the Sleaze Festival and the Carrier Moped Race.

Want to receive News from Amsterdam? Click here