The feeling of the neighbourhood

To get to know the neighbourhoods, multiple sources were retrieved. The municipality offers numbers and facts about the neighbourhood, the local newspaper shares about several events and by cycling through the neighbourhoods, observations were done. Though these sources gave us a nice introduction, stories of people are the most valuable.

The interviews brought many different insights in the neighbourhood. Interviewing the elderly in the streets felt for some of the interviewed like a real relief. They took it as an opportunity to finally share their story about the nuisances and troubles of their neighbourhood. Others are more neutral about these troubles as we also learned that in the last few years multiple initiatives have started to improve safety in the neighbourhoods.

Apparently, the neighbourhoods have changed a lot over the last few years. Especially the neighbourhood of Woenselse Heide, but Tempel as well, has suffered from several problems regarding hanging youth, vandalism and criminality. Furthermore, the neighbourhoods of Woenselse Heide and Tempel show signs of pauperization. The houses are getting older and some show deferred maintenance. It happens more often that people are taking less care of their front garden, which impacts the scenery of the streets.

Nevertheless, this is an image of the last few years and people are taking care to turn this around. Since a few years, in cooperation with the municipality and the community centres, multiple initiatives have started to improve the safety. All residents were allowed to think along about this. Some of the interviewed share this and inform us about the confidence it gave back in the streets. The neighbourhoods are rising again, giving a positive vibe.

We got to know frustration and disappointment, but also joy and inspiration by the positive twist that the neighbours have given through the initiatives that improve the neighbourhoods. Despite the troubles, we see a neighbourhood where solutions are found together to maintain the harmony and cohesion.