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home about terms of use flattr contact seed network links i amsterdam november 9 2010 middot filed under general getting political pat n steph middot 3 comments expats coming to the netherlands beware the city of amsterdam recently launched a new 8216 brand 8217 called i amsterdam this is a registered trademark of the city and is supposedly used for companies or other organizations that present the city in a good light â in particular an important part of the marketing efforts are to attract so called knowledge workers to the city and help with their relocation by promoting businesses that can assist them with things like housing banking and the like beware of racism an important part of the history of the netherlands is after wwii a large number of migrants came here to help with the reconstruction of the country â these migrants kept coming and in recent times turned into more educated knowledge workers â in fact in light of the fact there were large numbers of knowledge workers the governments has significantly cut back on educational spending and let immigrants fill the gaps causing other problems i won 8217 t get into here the view has always been maintained that those coming to the country are doing so to serve the native dutch and their descendants â in other words knowledge workers come here to create jobs and these jobs are for ethnic dutch the demographics are now such that about half the city 8217 s population is not ethnic dutch and if you move here you will also not be ethnic dutch there 8217 s a long running custom for ethnic dutch to only hire or offer promotions to other ethnic dutch â in fact to hire or promote someone who is not ethnic dutch is considered to be taking a risk â this might create discontent in the workplace a clash of cultures or attract complaints from customers 8212 much in the same way it used to be with black workers in america there is no such thing as affirmative action or reverse discrimination here and certainly not in the city government â the vast majority of city workers are ethnic dutch and nearly all of those in positions of importance are â most city contracts go to companies who only hire ethnic dutch â certainly for the purposes of this new marketing logo if you do business with the companies involved you will see they are almost all exclusively staffed with ethnic dutch if you do business with them you will be leaving out the half of the city that is not ethnic dutch housing this is a good example and since i am not ethnic dutch and am offering an apartment for rent let me explain a little bit how this works largely speaking there are three kinds of housing in amsterdam â there 8217 s social housing where you have to meet certain income employment and pre existing residence requirements â there 8217 s free sector housing which is more expensive and easier to find â now there 8217 s this new category called short stay housing especially intended for expats there 8217 s lots of grey areas in housing for example people who have social housing illegally subletting it to expats for a huge profit or landlords illegally renting out social housing as free sector â lots of people will worn expats about 8216 illegal 8217 housing but actually there 8217 s nothing to worry about â there are no penalties for you to rent and live in illegal housing â the risks are almost exclusively for property owners â if you find yourself in the wrong kind of accommodation you may have to move out eventually or pay a higher than expected rent you might find yourself swamped with a bit of red tape but there are no other risks the one issue for some is if you are non eu and living here on a residence permit renewed on an annual basis you will need to register your residence with the city and be allowed to live wherever that is â this is easy â if you fall into this situation ask your potential landlord if you 8217 re allowed to register â if the answer is no you have to look elsewhere â your landlord will not want you to try to register if you 8217 re not allowed to and it will create a lot of problems for them if you do â if you aren 8217 t required to register because of a residence permit it 8217 s no problem to come to an agreement that you won 8217 t register if this is what you want to do there is nothing illegal about renting an apartment from me or any other private party â most places are okay to register with the city â if you rent from me you can certainly register if you want no problem short stay housing was created because there are a lot of empty apartments in the city now that don 8217 t meet the requirements of free sector rental housing and can 8217 t be sold because the real estate market is too depressed â licenses were granted to large housing corporations to use this excess housing as 8216 short stay 8217 housing in limited numbers so the market would not fill up with expat rentals bringing prices down â these licenses were granted 8216 per unit 8217 with entire apartment blocks considered as a single unit meaning the cost for someone like me with a single apartment was unrealistic and only pre existing housing corporations would qualify if you move into an official 8216 short stay 8217 rental you will get housing licensed by a city government dominated by ethnic dutch with the intention of keeping it in short supply in an otherwise flooded real estate market with artificially high rents as well as with the intention of benefiting ethnic dutch owners running a company who only hires ethnic dutch workers this isn 8217 t the right kind of housing for expats whatever you do and however you find housing the best thing to do is avoid official short stay housing and official housing companies â if you 8217 re looking for housing leave a comment on this post and i 8217 ll try to offer the most current advice i have at the moment work ethic one of the things that happens with the active promotion of ethnic dutch is one of the most atrocious work ethics i have ever seen â nothing is a better example than when the city was licensing taxis in a similar way as the new short stay housing â by searching on tca or taxi centrale amsterdam there are probably lots of stories on the internet but basically the city turned all of their taxi drivers into thugs the taxi drivers all knew they had a right to drive their taxi pretty much charge whatever they wanted and could do what they wanted because the city had given them a permanent license and weren 8217 t issuing new licenses to others â this basically meant they were ripping off any tourist who entered their cabs charging whatever they wanted and many became involved in organized crime â for a time it was known if you wanted pirated software you could buy a cd from most taxi drivers â many would transport drugs on request â it was a real mess and it took a long time to sort out â nowadays the taxis aren 8217 t nearly as bad certainly nothing to be afraid of but there are still a few bad drivers floating around and taxis are still best avoided if possible later i 8217 m going to do a post on my recent house renovations and the story is similar with this any time you do business with a completely ethnic dutch company you risk the same sort of work ethic and desire to charge the highest price for the least amount of work â by the way this is often the case with ethnic dutch people trying to buy goods and services too â since employment is harder to come by for non ethnic dutch as a rule they are much more motivated and honest i 8217 m not in anyway encouraging anyone to discriminate the other way and refuse to do business with ethnic dutch but rather use common sense if you 8217 re an expat coming to amsterdam beware half of the city is like you 8212 from somewhere else â look out for and pay attention to them â look for colored skin a funny accent or native english speaker â the day will come where you expect the same from others if you come here and work for a foreign company it may take a long time before you notice it because you 8217 ll be working in a pretty sheltered environment â it 8217 s also normal when you come here to look on everything with a positive light and for example justify this kind of discrimination on the basis of a lack of appropriate language skills â the truth is with something like language skills the expectations are generally just so high that no non native speaker is good enough â almost no one learns to speak dutch as a second language without an accent â it can take a long time living here before you see just how undeniable the discrimination is but you 8217 ll see it eventually a desire to purchase goods and services from non ethnic dutch is really the most important first step to ending the discrimination that goes on here expats coming to the netherlands beware the city of amsterdam recently launched a new brand called i amsterdam this is a registered trademark of the city and is supposedly used for companies or other organizations that present the city in a good light â in particular an important part of the marketing efforts are to attract so called knowledge workers to the city and help with their relocation by promoting businesses that can assist them with things like housing banking and the like beware of racism an important part of the history of the netherlands is after wwii a large number of migrants came here to help with the reconstruction of the country â these migrants kept coming and in recent times turned into more educated knowledge workers â in fact in light of the fact there were large numbers of knowledge workers the governments has significantly cut back on educational spending and let immigrants fill the gaps causing other problems i won t get into here the view has alwa tags garden pictures november 2010 november 6 2010 middot filed under featured plant garden middot comment above is what tim peters perennial rye looks like now â i haven 8217 t been worrying too much about the weeds assuming they will soon either be killed off by frost or choked out by the rye â the rye plants have been developing crowns and all growing pretty strong this is the yacã n corner of the garden â yacã n is very sensitive to frost and we 8217 ve already had some light frosts so you can see they are dying back a bit â on the left is a new variety for this year with purplish leaves new zealand yacã n and on the right my unamed brown rooted variety â in the back out of sight i have a few of the red rooted yacã n morado plants growing too also suffering from ground frosts is my one surviving mauka plant frank sent me a year ago â frank sent me 4 cuttings which i kept indoors through the winter and planted in the spring â i almost killed them with neglect several times and while i 8217 m glad i tried it once i 8217 m not planning to try it again this winter â i just don 8217 t have the space or resources to keep live cuttings through the winter indoors â i can 8217 t wait to try the root of this however after the tops are killed off by frost above is what tim peters perennial rye looks like now â i haven t been worrying too much about the weeds assuming they will soon either be killed off by frost or choked out by the rye â the rye plants have been developing crowns and all growing pretty strong this is the yacã n corner of the garden â yacã n is very sensitive to frost and we ve already had some light frosts so you can see they are dying back a bit â on the left is a new variety for this year with purplish leaves new zealand yacã n and on the right my unamed brown rooted variety â in the back out of sight i have a few of the red rooted yacã n morado plants growing too also suffering from ground frosts is my one surviving mauka plant frank sent me a year ago â frank sent me 4 cuttings which i kept indoors through the winter and planted in the spring â i almost killed them with neglect several times and while i m glad i tried it once i m not planning to try it again this winter â i just don t have the space or tags foundation work has begun november 2 2010 middot filed under house and home pat n steph middot 3 comments this has been going on for years now and i 8217 ve posted before about my house foundation http www patnsteph net weblog 2006 01 house foundation http www patnsteph net weblog 2008 02 its time for a new house foundation http www patnsteph net weblog 2008 06 building permits http www patnsteph net weblog 2009 03 foundation trials and tribulations and a bad constructeur http www patnsteph net weblog 2010 03 big projects 2010 house http www patnsteph net weblog 2010 03 approval in short based on their experiences with other houses in the neighborhood many of which needed foundation repairs and the outside appearance of my house the city decided to do an inspection of my foundation in 2006 and discovered it was bad in 2008 i was ready to begin but the project got bogged down with disputes with the neighbors and a technical architect what the dutch call a 8216 constructeur 8217 who was trying to rip me off â above is a link where i talk about what happened with the constructeur but in fact this is now in court and is an ongoing issue so i 8217 m not going to say a lot more about it now â i 8217 ll post more about it later â the same is true with the neighbors things need to be a little more settled before i post details on the internet so now the work has finally begun and we 8217 ve run into the first technical problem my house is built with a load bearing wall in the middle â this makes the foundation repair much more complicated because as well as supporting the outside walls both during the work in with the new foundation this inside wall has to be supported too â my house is 330 years old now and this wall is part of the original house the problem we discovered with this wall is it 8217 s not strong or stable enough for the foundation repair â before we fix the foundation we need to fix this wall â the main problem you can see is visible on the right side of the picture â here 8217 s a close up of that part of the wall you can see in this picture the wall is not straight â the piece of wood running from the ceiling to the floor is perfectly vertical â the load bearing wall however slants to the left â the measurement difference between the bottom of the wall and the piece of wood and the top of the wall and the piece of wood is about 15cm â literally my house is in the process of toppling and the stress of a foundation repair will likely just send it over if i don 8217 t do something about it first another less serious but kind of humorous problem we uncovered was in connection with an old fireplace that used to be in this room â i think it was used to burn coal â one of the first things i did when i bought the house was remove the fireplace in the top picture you can see a black stripe where the flu used to run â the silly people who installed the fireplace and flu ran it alongside the wooden ceiling beam â below is a close up of the beam and you can see they were starting to burn through it â i wonder if they noticed any unusual smells the beams in this room were rotting anyway and have since been replaced or reinforced so it 8217 s not an issue anymore the other problem at the moment is independent from my foundation plans the city has decided to dig up the entire street in front of my house and replace the water electricity gas and sewer â above is a picture of what the street looks like and as you can see it 8217 s now impossible to get any heavy equipment into the house or place a rubbish container on the street so the plan at the moment is to remove the troublesome load bearing wall and replace it with a steel structure â i 8217 ve wanted to remove the wall for some time now and just was trying to avoid the expense when i needed to pay for the foundation repair unfortunately this is going to involve completely redesigning the foundation because the weight will be distributed differently â on the plus side i will probably need fewer piles because the weight of the wall won 8217 t need to be supported in the middle and this will save some money â the current plans include 15 piles 21 meters deep â hopefully i will be able to go to 13 or 14 piles â this all needs to be done and submitted to the city for approval and since we need to wait for the city to finish the street work we have some time to kill anyway after approval from the city what we will do is cut holes in the existing cement floor for the new piles â the way my existing foundation is built is it 8217 s entirely under the outer walls and the inside load bearing wall â â in the middle of the house there are no piles and this is where the new piles will go â the reason for cutting holes in the existing floor instead of just removing it is the equipment that drives the new piles needs a hard surface to work on â the ceiling clearance is a little over 2 meters and the new piles will be made with a hollow steel case that will be driven 2 meters at a time with the sections welded together as they are driven â then the hollow case will be filled with cement the piles will be driven starting with the most solid side of our house first and as the piles go in a support structure will be built on top of the new piles giving support to the house â when we get to the load bearing wall a special temporary support structure will be built allowing the removal of the wall and installation of a new permanent steel structure to replace it as the first piles are driven the ground will get compacted meaning the later piles will have to be driven harder to get them in the ground â it will be important at this point to have good support in place for the house after the piles are driven the existing floor will be removed and the ground dug out because the new floor will be lower than the existing one and the ground is seriously contaminated and needs to be cleaned â there will be some refilling of the space with sand after the space is dug out they will break holes in the outer walls that the new foundation will mesh into â a new concrete floor will be poured and this floor will sit on top of the new piles and into these holes in the wall â the holes will be 50cm wide spaced 50cm apart meaning at floor level half my wall will be cut away â jacks will be placed in these holes to support the house on the existing foundation during the work but after the cement floor is poured the weight of the house will be transferred to the new piles via the cement floor i 8217 ll be posting pictures this has been going on for years now and i ve posted before about my house foundation http www patnsteph net weblog 2006 01 house foundation http www patnsteph net weblog 2008 02 its time for a new house foundation http www patnsteph net weblog 2008 06 building permits http www patnsteph net weblog 2009 03 foundation trials and tribulations and a bad constructeur http www patnsteph net weblog 2010 03 big projects 2010 house http www patnsteph net weblog 2010 03 approval in short based on their experiences with other houses in the neighborhood many of which needed foundation repairs and the outside appearance of my house the city decided to do an inspection of my foundation in 2006 and discovered it was bad in 2008 i was ready to begin but the project got bogged down with disputes with the neighbors and a technical architect what the dutch call a constructeur who was trying to rip me off â above is a link where i talk about what happened with the constructe tags blue tomato seeds october 30 2010 middot filed under seeds middot 4 comments fancy growing blue tomatoes in your garden next year plant breeder tom wagner has been working the last few years on a few different lines of blue tomatoes â these are breed using traditional techniques and are completely natural â he has some extra seeds to share with interested gardeners who would like to buy them try them and report back to him on their experiences more information can be found in this article in the christian science monitor blog fancy growing blue tomatoes in your garden next year plant breeder tom wagner has been working the last few years on a few different lines of blue tomatoes â these are breed using traditional techniques and are completely natural â he has some extra seeds to share with interested gardeners who would like to buy them try them and report back to him on their experiences more information can be found in this article in the christian science monitor blog tags 45th parallel seeds october 26 2010 middot filed under seed network seed saving seeds middot comment earl bassett of 45th parallel seeds just contacted me and asked to be added to the seed network here which of course i was delighted to do â his website makes him look like an interesting person a community gardener who donates some of his excess to local food pantries if you have seeds from your own garden and want to offer them to others please let me know and i 8217 ll be happy to add you to the seed network list too â the important rules are that your seeds must not be expensive generally less than a few dollars per variety they can 8217 t be offered with the requirement of an otherwise large purchase and you must be offering only op seeds or clearly labelled homemade hybrids â in particular commercial hybrids are not allowed on the seed network â the purpose of the seed network is to help people find reasonably priced seeds they can grow save seeds from and regrow and they should be able to send a few dollars to you for this purpose and get some usable seeds if you wish to offer commercial f1 hybrid seeds on your website they must be on a separate page not referenced from the list of op seeds and if someone contacts you via the seed network you should not promote the commercial f1 seeds if you have any questions about this or would like to be added please get in touch i 8217 ll add my 2010 2011 offerings as soon as i get them organized and have some spare time earl bassett of 45th parallel seeds just contacted me and asked to be added to the seed network here which of course i was delighted to do â his website makes him look like an interesting person a community gardener who donates some of his excess to local food pantries if you have seeds from your own garden and want to offer them to others please let me know and i ll be happy to add you to the seed network list too â the important rules are that your seeds must not be expensive generally less than a few dollars per variety they can t be offered with the requirement of an otherwise large purchase and you must be offering only op seeds or clearly labelled homemade hybrids â in particular commercial hybrids are not allowed on the seed network â the purpose of the seed network is to help people find reasonably priced seeds they can grow save seeds from and regrow and they should be able to send a few dollars to you for this purpose and get some usable seeds if you wish to offer commercial f1 tags next page raquo bifurcated carrots heirloom gardening and the lives of pat n steph recent comments chris comments are old here but i 8217 ll leave a comment anyways i have 9 varieties and through an accident patrick hi steve thanks for the great comment i too have a story about contacting the sse this was a few years steven gunter patrick thank you for supporting kent i do not know the guy myself but it is obvious he was amp matt very interesting and good to know 8230 i 8217 ll keep it in mind next time i 8217 m over there patrick hi robert i always like it when you leave comments i don 8217 t think so it 8217 s not like i think recent posts i amsterdam garden pictures november 2010 foundation work has begun blue tomato seeds 45th parallel seeds seed savers exchange kent whealy land institute speech sept 2010 an interview with alan kapuler tomato forum tom 8217 s new 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