Rotterdam (or anywhere)

Walking in Rotterdam I had the strange feeling of being lost in urbanity. This city has a lot of architectural highlights, from the modernist houses to the postmodern Kubicks, but something is lacking. Maybe it's the overall sense of the place. It would be very easy from functionalist urbanist perspective to point out the lack of coherent planning, but I am not sure that that's what is missing. Maybe it's the history.

It's the simple thought that Rotterdam has more in common with Beirut than Amsterdam that mark this mixed feeling that something is missing. I guess that for the time-traveller, ¾ of the city is missing because it has been bombed during the second world war, and that's probably the invisible sign that somehow is highlighted by the contemporary postmodern architecture.

Rotterdam, European Youth Capital 2009! How the city will celebrate that recognition we will discover soon. But i wanted here to reflect upon the concept of th eyouth capital, and how this will be developed in the next two year, first in the Netherlands, and then in Torino in 2010.

What should be a European Youth Capital?
I hope it is not going to be just the junior version (or the cool/funky/trendy version) of one of any other titles or special events that Cities are bidding to get in order to increase their visibility and their international profile. It would be nice if, together with cultural events, cooperation projects, city-twining, etc. the new concept of the European Youth Capital would develop into a unique opportunity to launch new urban laboratories where experiment new form of urban governance and planning. Involving young people not only as city-users and consumers. Participatory planning strategies have been already involving citizens and neighbours with few successful examples in the past (let's remember the renewal of Barcelona before the Olimpic Games in 1992 – after things got much worse for citizens, but that's another story).

Let's try to resume few ideas:

- Bidding: Involving youth organisations in the bidding phase and in the promoting/organising committee;
- Planning: Link the youth capital project with the strategic development plan of the city Implementation: Create opportunities for new practices of participatory planning to public spaces;

- European dimension: the programme of the activities and of the impact of the activities (legac

- Local legacy: follow-up plan involving local youth and community-based organisations in urban governance and urban planning inspired on the model of co-management developed in the youth sector of the Council of Europe;
- European legacy: the practices and the activities should impact at the european level and set standards for the following editions.

Rotterdam
(by beautiful south)

And the women tug their hair
Like theyre trying to prove it wont fall out
And all the men are gargoyles
Dipped long in irish stout

The whole place is pickled
The people are pickles for sure
And no-one knows if they've done more here
Than they ever would do in a jar

This could be rotterdam or anywhere
Liverpool or rome
cause rotterdam is anywhere
Anywhere alone
Anywhere alone

And everyone is blonde
And everyone is beautiful
And when blondes and beautiful are multiple
They become so dull and dutiful

And when faced with dull and dutiful
They fire red warning flares
Battle-khaki personality
With red underwear

This could be rotterdam or anywhere
Liverpool or rome
cause rotterdam is anywhere
Anywhere alone
Anywhere alone

The whole place is pickled
The people are pickles for sure
And no-one knows if theyve done more here
Than they ever would do in a jar

This could be rotterdam or anywhere
Liverpool or rome
cause rotterdam is anywhere
Anywhere alone

This could be rotterdam or anywhere
Liverpool or rome
cause rotterdam is anywhere
Anywhere alone