Today is the penultimate day of my trip here in the Netherlands, which sadly means this is also my second-to-last blog post. Today was a very interesting day that changed my perspective on how cities are created and managed. I also had the pleasure of visiting The Hague, another city in the Netherlands.

We ventured on the metro towards InHolland Rotterdam today. We had previously visited InHolland Delft, the aeronautical engineering campus. However, Rotterdam is home to Business, Finance, Law, and a host of other social science-based majors. We began our time with the University staff by walking around the area surrounding the campus and gaining a unique perspective on what they referred to as “placement,” which I believe is closest to urban planning. The first two things I noticed were two bridges, one of which bore a striking resemblance to the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York, and another which was essentially the Golden Gate Bridge. The area we were walking in was, in fact, supposed to resemble a Dutch Manhattan, and I believe it did that fairly accurately.

Rotterdam, which was bombed during WW2, had about 80% of its infrastructure destroyed. Because of this, it was able to rebuild uniquely, creating a playground for all kinds of architecture. The faculty who took us on our tour were from the creative business department. They engaged in a good amount of unique learning; they had labs throughout Rotterdam. These labs would do things such as monitor communities, research the safety of places at night, and give suggestions on how to improve them, and more. These labs offered hands-on experience with real-world issues within urban areas and drew attention from city officials. The really interesting thing, though, was the discussion on placement and urban planning. I’ve been to plenty of cities and experienced busy cities, clean and dirty cities, and congested or open ones. I had never, though, considered how the infrastructure and layout of the city impacted the people, especially in marginalized groups. Rotterdam was described as a city that’s built from the top down, meaning the community has little to no voice about projects and planning; instead, it comes from the government or other stakeholders. An example given was a green space that was very nice, but no one was using it. The comment was made that if the community had input, they would most likely occupy the space. Instead, because it was made with little input, it most likely does not meet their needs. Sustainably, this green space, we learned, helps with irrigation and drainage as grass is permeable, but concrete requires runoff. Another example of placement and urban planning affecting groups was the gentrification of an area that was once the red-light district of Rotterdam. This area, which was used for subsidized housing, has had recent developments which have brought in a wealthy demographic. This caused a new school to be built instead of a combined space and has furthered the divide in wealth of children in schools. Most interesting to me, though, was the idea that from a concept to consumer perspective, gentrification is not only about housing or gentrifying a specific industry/place. Instead, the concept is to make a livable space for wealthier citizens that is nicer than what once was. What is actually delivered to the consumer, though, is new restaurants, grocery stores, gyms, and places that will accommodate all the needs of the wealthier group. The unintended consequence of this is rising prices and, unfortunately, a continuation of gentrification and an elimination of the subsidized housing.

After our tour, we had a brief presentation about InHolland. Many people were shocked at the price of education here, but I still believe it is all relative. While it is much cheaper, I think there are still inexpensive options in the United States and the value of degrees is different. Ironically, our host told us most Dutch students wish to study abroad in the U.S or Spain. It was definitely interesting to see the contrast again in curriculum and structure.

Finally, to end the day and our last dinner on our own in the Netherlands, some of us traveled to The Hague. I wish I could have spent more time there this trip as it truly was a beautiful city and I believe it could have been my favorite. We chose to do a little bit of shopping and visited a palace. After walking around, we sat down for dinner. Tomorrow is our last official day in the Netherlands and while I’m excited to go home, it is strange how quickly this trip has gone by.