* A number of large buildings have been completely ignored by the Project Managemant Bureau (PMB) because there is too much money involved with them (ADM, Entrepotdok). It is only said that there is nothing that the PMB can do and that is the final word. It is possible that a replacement location will be sought. Additionally, a large number of the people who submitted the 1998 raadsadress from which the whole broedplaats policy originates have been completely left out.

* Temporary solutions solve nothing!
The PMB is mainly occupied with the creation of temporary projects while the emphasis should be on permanent projects. A broedplaats must have time and space to develop itself and not be confined by time limits.

* The PMB has in it’s Plan of Approach placing of broedplaatsen in the fringe edges of the city. This means that they will be tolerated or created mainly outside the city center while the inner city is an important location for certain types of activities. Additionally, because of city growth these locations must be further pushed aside as these areas become more economically interesting. Placing these broedplaatsen in out-of-the way areas (i.e. Kinetisch Noord) goes against the philosophy that subculture is a necessary ingredient for a liveable and culturally interesting inner city.

* A broedplaats makes an enormous contribution to the cultural climate of a neighborhood. You often see that “no-go” areas are brought to life after a building has again been put to use. In such a way the broedplaats increases the liveability and economic climate of a neighborhood. They contribute their own economic value in this manner and should not be expected to generate money from within the building itself.

* At the moment the Plan of Approach has as it’s baseline a rent price of fl 70/m2 which through self-maintenance and management can be reduced to a minimum of fl 50/m2. This may appear to the “outside world” as a very reasonable amount, but if you consider that the majority of the people in such a building already place all of their time and energy in getting projects up and running and making the spaces open to the public you will realize that they have no time or energy left over to find an outside job to make money to pay the rent. The rent is paid in time and energy.

Additionally, if the most important goal of all projects that take place is to generate money to pay rent, the artistic side is lost because everything revolves around making money. You cannot make money on subculture. Amsterdam should support and stimulate culture instead of trying to market it.

* The PMB should direct more attention on places that already exist instead of only trying to create something new. In this way you also prevent the whole story of defining criteria which people must satisfy in order to conform to broedplaats policy. If a group of people demonstrate the initiative to get an interesting project up and running themselves why then isn’t the attention of the PMB mainly directed at supporting these groups instead of only being busy with purchasing buildings and creating possibilities for new groups to house themselves?

* In setting up various criteria to which people or groups must conform in order to fit into the broedplaats policy you try to define something which cannot be defined. It is just such diversity of differing dimensions onto which a label can never be placed. And, above all, each group and situation is different. By means of criteria you also get the situation in which people that have already lived and worked in a vrijplaats for a very long time could suddenly fall outside the criteria.

* A very important aspect of a broedplaats is that there is not only working but also living in them. At this moment the emphasis is really only placed on working in these buildings--especially for artists. But, these buildings are not only about art and artists. Culture and subculture should not be defined only in artistic terms, but contain all aspects of life which contribute to the specific qualities in these types of buildings. At this time the living-in aspect is being ignored in most of the contracts which are being offered. In this way it is being shown that the value of this aspect is being considered only in the legal interests of the PMB (rights that are granted to people who live in such a building).

*At the moment it is expected that the groups that are or will be housed in a broedplaats building will write all sorts of economic and business plans. This is not the manner in which projects develop. They must grow from themselves and not be totally thought-out from the start. Additionally, the writing of such plans cost an enormous amount of energy from the people who must write them because in most cases they have no experience in these things. This energy is better spent on developing of projects rather than on writing of plans. It is rightly an important quality of these buildings that they develop themselves and are not completely thought-out before hand.