‘The small pain of a closed alley, that is also part of a village’| section Joris Brussels
In an interview with this newspaper, he indicated that he had been taken back to Schiphol by plane a while ago after a city trip in London. “Right above Heemskerk we entered the Netherlands again. A week later I take my application letter and now we are here,” said the new mayor.
Read also: Heemskerk embraces new mayor Alexander Luijten and he himself says: ‘Ich bin ein Ezel’
Nice anecdote and what a coincidence. That the plane flew into our country exactly above Heemskerk. If you want every Velsen-Noorder who dies to go on holiday by plane, it is assumed that they have flown into the country above Velsen-North. Uitgeests then fly into the Netherlands again above Uitgeest and Beverwijkers above Beverwijk.
The only village in which this truth does not apply is Castricum. According to many residents there who die I know, all planes always, but always, always come over their heads into our country. What a village is great at, let’s just say.
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And that brings me to the second comment from the new mayor of Heemskerk that I can appreciate. I quote from his speech with his statement: “Heemskerk, the village of Heemskerk. A village with forty thousand inhabitants. I know places with 3,000 inhabitants where they’ll smack you if you fail to call them ‘city’. When I think of the word village, I think of knowing each other, helping each other, of a sense of community, of solidarity.” What a beautiful observation of the ‘dórp’ where I hope he pronounced it correctly as doorrruuuppp.
I myself think of the word village on the Dorpstraat in the board game Monopoly, of the Heemskerk folk festivals and Richard Kemper’s unsurpassed column. A few years ago, the Heemskerk comedian and fellow columnist in this newspaper wrote a column about many Heemskerkers who were moved. About him why he is proud to drink beer from a clicko during the race with old friends from the village.
I hope that mayor Luijten will read that column again and experience the village feeling so beautifully described by both gentlemen. And is also willing to accept that a village also brings specific emotions and elements. Take the recent opportunity across the alley in the Jean Monnetstraat in Heemskerk. The municipality is closing this alley after it has been used as a shortcut by local residents for thirty years.
Closed
A decision that has been made correctly was at the request of a resident of the street who wanted the alley closed. After which the municipality placed a fence. Because many residents now have to detour or detour, there was a lot of resistance from the neighborhood. 150 signatures were collected and a previous card failed. The municipality stands firm and indicates that it is only a specific target group that uses the alley. And yes, that seems most plausible to me. This target group probably mainly consists of people who live in Rue Jean Monnet or the surrounding area and who would benefit from using the alley. The judge will rule no later than January 26 next year about the possible reversal of the closure of the alley. By then I hope that the new mayor is already fully enjoying ‘the sense of community’ in the village. But it is likely that he also embraced the romanticism of the small pain of a dense alley. Would also like to belong to a village.