9 Responses to “Kyoko Inatome’s Zuidas Blocks”

1. Loïc Says:
   June 12th, 2009 at 17:46

   Hello !
   I’m a regular reader of your blog, and today i meet à couple of nice person doing a worltour in bike… In their blog they have a nice picture of a “café bike” : http://journal.goingslowly.com/2009/05/eat-breakfast.html … it can be interesting ^_-
   So keep cool and have fun ^_-
   ++

   L from France (Nantes) … @ sorry for my english ^_^

2. henry Says:
   June 12th, 2009 at 17:57

   Bonjour Loic,
   Thanks for your note. That nice looking Café bike is a WorkCycles, one of ours thus! but I had never seen a picture of it before.

3. Todd Edelman Says:
   June 13th, 2009 at 04:40

   Maybe I still want kids. Why and why not is Amsterdam a good place to raise some?

4. henry Says:
   June 13th, 2009 at 06:57

   Todd, Amsterdam is a great place for kids. It’s got the cultural benefits of a big, international city without many of the detractors. It’s very safe, it has real neighborhoods, you get around by bike, the cost of living is not crazy high, a 20 minute bike ride from the center gets you to beautiful nature in all directions. The Dutch love kids and as a result there are great facilities for kids: schools, swimming pools, skate parks, indoor play centers, sports parks and more. Respected studies have shown that Dutch kids are the happiest in the world.

5. Todd Edelman Says:
   June 14th, 2009 at 11:47

   Regarding kids, yes, I know most of that… thanks. Still, no place is perfect. What could use some improvement? (If you tell us you won’t lose your job as an unofficial city booster).

6. henry Says:
   June 14th, 2009 at 15:18

   Todd,

   The traffic is terrible. Driving my Escalade here is just an exercise in frustration because the streets are so damn narrow and there are bicyclists everywhere and they don’t even follow the rules of the road. Parking is nearly impossible. Gas is crazy expensive.

   The Mexican food in Amsterdam totally sucks and I don’t think there’s a single Salvadoran restaurant here.

   There are no mountains in the entire Netherlands. Nor is there any hunting. I can’t even carry my gun.

   I’m normal height in the rest of the world but a shrimp in Holland. Half the women are taller than me here.

   Some years summer never happens. It just goes from Spring to Fall.

   There are 50 kinds of dairy products I’d never seen before but only about five breakfast cereals that only come in one size package.

   They don’t sell Wonder Bread here.

7. Todd Edelman Says:
   June 16th, 2009 at 15:50

   Henry-Dude, it’s like this:

   If you say something negative or indicative of a necessary improvement, your positive stuff will seem truer. It’s like the best CDs being ones with happy and sad songs: They make each other seem happier or sadder… people are like this, too.

   Not that it is role but check out how much Zak in Copenhagen criticizes the Danish national government… I have heard some negative stuff about the Dutch counterpart and I live outside and talk to one guy (who happens to be the head of a dept. at a hochschule there). I am sure you know a lot more.

   By the way do McDonalds there have bike parking?

8. henry Says:
   June 16th, 2009 at 17:49

   Todd, Don’t worry; I don’t shy away from being negative. Have a look at my now famous review of the ridiculous TrioBike. I just don’t have any notable complaints about raising a child in Amsterdam.

   Zak is just critical about the helmets but we just don’t have that issue here.

   Bike parking isn’t left to individual businesses. That’s handled by the city and in the Netherlands everything except a handful of protected locations are open for parking. That’s why Amsterdam looks like it does. So no, McDonalds probably don’t usually supply bike parking… nor auto parking.

9. halim POC Says:
   July 18th, 2009 at 18:45

   mr andre, bicyle like that in indonesia we call it ODONG-ODONG, transportation for children

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