supermarket and offers ample and easy parking, thereby also attracting
goal-oriented shoppers from further away. In the vast range of different
frequenters of the square, there are three main groups^15 discernible who
stake a claim on the space: Somali men of all ages, male adolescents of
predominantly Moroccan and Antillean descent, and elderly, middle class
ethnic Dutch. These groups use the square on different parts of the day
the elderly ethnic Dutch gravitate towards the mornings, the Somali men
convene in the afternoon and the ‘street corner boys’ start to come in the
afternoon and then stay well into the night. Though their timetables differ,
the groups still get in each other’s way.
Their appreciation of and perception of the social life on the square
differ.Or better said: differ tremendously. In all my informal interviews on
the square I asked the same question: which three words would you use to
describe the square?^16 On one end of the spectrum, the word used most
was: ‘gezellig’. Though I do not know of a one-on-one translation, the
word ‘gezellig’ alludes to social, convivial and cosy. It is an intrinsic posi-
tive description. Another oft used description comparedVerdipleinto a
second home: the place you go to when you are awake, to meet friends, to
hear what’s new, to relax before going to work.
Gezellig! Sometimes too boisterous, but you have to realise you are in Noord, in
Stokhasselt, here you find a large concentration of foreigners together. The people like
to be in the street, maybe something will happen. I don’t live here anymore, I am study-
ing in X. But today I am visiting my parents and here I run into all my old mates.
(Moroccan male, late 20s)
Verdiplein is the end point: when people have done their thing they come here, or when
they still have to start up, they first come here, or when they can’t find someone, or can’t
reach them, or when they simply don’t have anything to do. (Moroccan male, late 20s)On the other hand of the spectrum there is not one word that is repeated,
but all the words used express a shared sentiment of abhorrence, often con-
nected to strong nostalgia for times past. General consensus would be that
Verdipleinstarted to go down the drain from the 1990s onwards.
I do not have words for it, I don’t like it one bit. I’ve been living in this neighbourhood
since ’69 and the whole place is going to the dogs, since 1980, 1986, 1990, I don’t know
exactly. The mixing of let’s say the races starting then. Other customs, other habits, it
doesn’t go easy. The Somalis really shook up the square. (Moluccan male, mid-50s)Some respondents are more roundabout in their descriptions, but many
are unabashedly frank:
At times it will be black with people here, literally! (Caucasian male, late 20s)‘You Are Not from Around Here, Are You.’ 11