In the meantime, the gentrification frontline has shifted. The NDSM-wharf is already in the hands of an entire invasional power led by MTV, VNU and the IJ-kantine. Also on the industrial lots of Buiksloterham and Nieuwendammerham, garages and dancing schools are losing terrain to creative start-ups with moulded concrete floors and apple-green chairs. The heaviest battle is being fought in the Van der Pekstraat, where the carrier cycles are shutting out the Canta’s, and where hipster battallions anxiously march past the defending armies of the unemployed frontlines. The rest of Noord is still completely out of bounds for the advancing armies. The march is halted for the time being, as long as there’s no other place to land ashore. But they’re working on a secret tunnel.
Gentrification Battlefield
The non-Noorderner is advancing in Amsterdam-Noord. Ten years ago only the occasional explorer would dare to cross the water, taking a headquarters in an old conquered warehouse on the NDSM-wharf.
