Hangout spot or peaceful park?
The fight over the Noorderplantsoen
Door Sean Campbell
By Sean Campbell
Sean Campbell
‘Really? That’s the first time I’ve heard about it.’
It’s around five o’clock on a sunny summer’s day in the Noorderplantsoen and Albert González García, a student at the Prins Claus Conservatory, is taking another sip of his beer. He and his friends have settled close to the basketball court with picnic blankets, snacks, beer, and wine. They came here to chill, just like the hundreds of other students that are scattered all over the park.
Albert has no idea that their presence is a cause for severe grievances among the people living close by. They are sick of the barbecue smoke, loud music until late in the evening, and excessive drinking. It’s because of them that drinking has been banned around the pond, music and alcohol are forbidden after ten, and barbecuing is only allowed on special tiles.
‘Of course, the neighbours are important’, Albert says. ‘But it’s rough, you know. Us students usually go out around ten or later.’
He is not the only one who thinks that way. ‘The park is an essential student spot’, says religious studies student Noortje Vegter, who is taking an evening walk in the park. ‘I only have a small backyard with absolutely no shade. It sucks, it’s so hot there right now. So people prefer coming here. It’s a great place to hang out and easily accessible. And the park belongs to everyone.’
‘It’s the go-to place for most of us, because there aren’t really any other green areas like it in the city centre’, says law student Julia Gołębiewska.
Growing pressure
Students and the Noorderplantsoen are so connected that Het gras van het Noorderplantsoen became the unofficial Groningen student anthem. But as the number of students in the city has grown, so has the pressure on the park. Neighbours complain about the noise and the smells, but critics also point out that the plants are suffering. Because it’s not just the students, there’s also all the festivals and activities. Think Noorderzon, food truck festivals, sports events.
The air is thick with smoke sometimes
‘When it’s hot, the park is a complete mess’, says Gerard van de Poll of the park he still lovingly refers to as his ‘front yard’. He is the chairman of the neighbourhood association Noorderplantsoenbuurt and has lived in the Grachtstraat for forty years.
‘All the bins are full and there’s trash everywhere’, he explains. ‘People are barbecuing near the large field so much that the air is thick with smoke sometimes. And they don’t leave until late at night, only for bootcampers to show up at 8.30 in the morning and blast their workout music. People can’t even enjoy some peace and quiet in their own gardens.’
‘It’s almost like the camping grounds next to the TT circuit in Assen’, says Leon Dirrix, another local who has lived around the Noorderplantsoen for over a decade. ‘Of course it makes sense for students to come here, I’d do the same. But the park simply can’t handle four or five thousand of them at once.’
Plant life
Dirrix is a member of the Park Committee Noorderplantsoen, which advises the municipality on behalf of the residents of the three bordering neighbourhoods. ‘We mainly focus on nature and the ecological situation in the park. It hasn’t been doing great for a while now.’
Students often don’t realise that the park was built on the remnants of the 17th century city walls – that’s where the ‘hills’ come from. It’s also a home to stinzenplanten (a special group of imported, naturalising spring flowers that date back to the 16th century) and over fifty different species of tree. Residents fear the park’s plant life suffers due to the high volume of visitors, as well as it wearing down its grass fields. ‘The park is a national monument, which means we need to treat it with care’, Dirrix says.
And so local Stadjers have been bombarding the municipality with complaints for the last couple of years. They demanded a ban on barbecues in the Noorderplantsoen, prompted by the scorched grass, litter, and fumes. ‘There are so many harmful chemicals released by barbecues; they’re as bad as a pack of cigarettes’, says Dirrix. ‘As far as we’re concerned, we need a total ban on barbecues.’
Green city
He finds Leendert van der Laan, chairman of the local Partij voor het Noorden and member of the municipal council, on his side. ‘We need to make clear rules so the Noorderplantsoen can continue to flourish and people can still come here’, he says.
Just before summer, Van der Laan proposed a complete ban on barbecues, as well as speakers and other sound systems. ‘They just don’t mesh with the idea of the green city that most political parties want. They’re not sustainable and they’re bad for the air quality’, Van der Laan argues.
We need to make clear rules so the park can continue to flourish
Currently, you are free to play music until 10 p.m. and set up barbecues on so-called ‘barbecue tiles’. But Van der Laan feels this doesn’t cut it. ‘People are also setting up barbecues in places where it’s prohibited, and the city isn’t doing anything about it.’
A ban would create clarity, he thinks. ‘If we just make it clear to everyone that they’re not allowed to barbecue here, it will eventually become normal.’ He points to the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, where barbecues were banned in 2017.
For everyone
However, a majority of the municipal council voted against the proposals. Alderman Mirjam Wijnja has tried to lead things in the right direction with the current restrictions, but also believes that the Noorderplantsoen must be for everyone. ‘People in our municipality who don’t have a garden or balcony still deserve a place to barbecue’, she argues.
Another issue is the fact that the municipality does not have the resources to enforce a blanket ban. ‘We simply can’t keep watch all the time. But we’re really working on awareness, including when we talk to the student associations’, says spokesperson Natascha van ’t Hooft.
‘The residents don’t feel like they’re being heard’, says Leon Dirrix in response. The park committee is incredibly disappointed in the council’s decision. ‘It would have been a good show of faith towards the people who live here. Plus, it might change people’s mindsets and make them take the people around them into account more.’
Van de Poll completely agrees. ‘Just because the park belongs to everyone, that doesn’t mean that anything goes’, he says.
And so locals continue to be frustrated with what they believe is the municipality’s lack of understanding and backbone. ‘I just don’t understand how they can dismiss us like this. Why can’t they make a proper policy to deal with the nuisance?’
Respect each other
Meanwhile, most students are completely unaware of the fight that is being fought over ‘their’ backyard. ‘I can’t say I’ve heard much about it’, says law student Isadora Heerema. ‘But I can imagine why people would complain. Too many people just leave their trash lying around here. People should treat the park with respect and keep it clean. It’s a public space, after all.’
They know what it’s like here; maybe they should move
‘I think everyone should be free to do whatever they please, but also be respectful. Ensuring that people respect each other is more the issue’, thinks biology student Benja Blaschke, who also lives near the park. ‘Students do kind of dominate Groningen and they are very loud and take up a lot of space.’
But others are more critical when they hear of the locals and their complaints. ‘Sure, people should simply behave, but the residents still made the choice to move here’, says Noortje. ‘They know what the park is for. I don’t think the atmosphere will improve with a bunch of extra rules and bans. It’s a public space. They know what it’s like here; maybe they should move.’
Spread out
So is there a solution? Because students do need a place to go, everyone agrees. ‘We’re working on creating additional spaces that people can go’, says Van ’t Hooft. The city is thinking of existing areas like the Stadspark, but also the creation of new locations at the Dudok gas station – near De Toeter – and the Zuiderplantsoen that will be an extension of the Sterrebos.
Many residents agree with the municipality’s notion that spreading the crowds across other areas would help relieve some of the strain on the park. ‘The Oosterparkwijk has some great parks, but no one ever goes there’, says Van de Poll. ‘We’d like to take the focus off the Noorderplantsoen. We’ll never solve the problem otherwise.’
But will the students actually migrate to other places? ‘The Noorderplantsoen is a hot spot. It’s close to everything, so it’s an obvious choice for students’, says Isadora. Albert agrees. ‘If you don’t know where you want to meet with your friends, you just say Noorderplantsoen and everyone always agrees. It’s a special place and that’s where I usually go.’