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Green City Buzz is a sustainable urban development foundation with a story very much born of a place—the "Secret Village" in Amsterdam's historic city centre. Known as Amsterdam's "gay street," in 2016 the area became the target of redevelopment, but redevelopment with a soul!
Green City Buzz initially teamed up with all stakeholders on the street to improve the area through greening and better use of public space. We're now future-proofing Secret Village by implementing 20+ sub-projects from sustainable food and eco-friendly logistics to social cohesion initiatives and community engagement events. Our pièce de résistance is yet to come—transforming the street into a pedestrian haven and a true village centre for all Secret Villagers.
This a story of a battle for inclusive placemaking. How do you "improve" an area without letting go of the comforting and familiar? How do you welcome a new generation of visitors without alienating the old? How do you stay focused on big-picture thinking when the system tells you to stop dreaming big and narrow your focus, because it's easier?
Everything we do must keep the bigger picture in mind, because every street is an urban eco-system. You can't touch one area without impacting another, and it's time we approach urban development with this uncompromising mindset of real-world integration. We don't claim to have all the solutions (yet), but we have earned many answers worth sharing. It's what makes this little Amsterdam street, its inhabitants, and its caretakers a true game-changer in sustainable and inclusive urban development.
