Amsterdam Best Town To Live In Despite Top Crime Rate

Amsterdam is the second most criminal town in the Netherlands. Nonetheless, the capital is the most attractive city in the Netherlands to live in, according to the Atlas for Municipalities presented earlier last Thursday.

In the atlas, presented by the Foundation Atlas for Municipalities, Holland’s 50 largest municipalities are compared every year on 40 points.

This year’s rankings show that relatively new cities, such as Almere, Purmerend and Spijkenisse, have become less attractive to people due to a scarcity of cultural institutions.

Circus Theatre Carre’ was first opened in 1887. In 1987, the theatre received the designation ‘Royal.’ Ever since it has been known as "Koninklijk Theater Carre’" (Royal Theatre Carre’). The theater derives its name from a German circus family..
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The combination of an interesting city centre and extensive cultural and culinary offerings is popular. For this reason, towns like Groningen, Zwolle, Den Bosch, Eindhoven and Leiden are among the big gainers on the list.

Amsterdam tops the list in spite of negative points, which include ranking 49th out of 50 in the area of safety, 43rd when it comes to poverty, and — related to the latter — 49th in the percentage of residents on welfare. Regarding the percentage of privately-owned housing, it is right at the bottom (50th).

Poverty / Welfare

Amsterdam is a powerful magnet for people from around the globe — including many refugees, legal and illegal immigrants. The city is home to people from some 185 different nationalities. Many immigrants who have settled here in recent decades come from a Muslim background. They often bring an extended family, have an extended birthrate, and tend to be disadvantaged by a lack of higher education. Most have come to Holland for economic reasons, while others are escaping war and other forms of violence.

However, while Amsterdam — like all of Holland’s largest cities — is a multi-cultural society, Dutch culture in many ways clashes with the norms and values of Islam. This greatly hinders integration, even affecting second- or third generations. As a result there is ghetto-forming, along with the problems associated with mutual discrimination.

Holland’s social welfare system has suffered both from the influx of relatively unskilled or unemployable immigrants, as well as from a changing work ethic — or perhaps we should say, lack of work ethic — that has seen a high percentage of people, from immigrant and local background alike, remain on welfare without valid reasons.*

Safety

Amsterdam does have a high crime rate. Poverty amongst a relatively large percentage of the population likely plays a role. So does the presence of tourists. Pickpockets and other thieves have their hands full, so to speak.

Much crime in Amsterdam is of a different nature, though. In recent years, a revenge-war amongst top criminals has resulted in a number of assassinations — with hits often taking place in public.

The Positive

Despite the presence of problems seen in any city, many factors contribute to Amsterdam’s livability. According to the Atlas for Municipalities, its large choice of cultural offerings, combined with the presence of a varied culinary selection, all set in a historical city, makes for happy citizens.

Worldwide: 13th Most Livable

In the 2007 version of its annual listing of the World’s Best Cities to live in, Mercer Consulting ranked Amsterdam at number 13. Mercer’s analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 quality-of-living criteria for each city including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services.

Amsterdam has ranked higher in the past, but a lengthy program of traffic-disrupting city-wide construction projects has contributed to the recent dip.

* Further analysis of poverty in Amsterdam goes beyond our mission, but those who are interested in the subject may want to study The Poor Side of the Netherlands: Results from the Dutch ‘Poverty Monitor’, 1997-2003

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