Bryan Batista did not have to think long about why electric car manufacturer Tesla opened its first European distribution center in Tilburg in 2013. Founder Elon Musk’s right-hand man thought it was just a silly question. “Because it is so close to the port of Rotterdam, of course.” It is exemplary of how many foreigners see our country: as a large city-state. The only problem is that we don’t see it that way. Well, you may have the Randstad. But everything beyond that is really Verweggistan.
The Delta Metropolis Association, which wants to transform the ‘city swarm’ into one strong metropolis, is pleased with Eberhard van der Laan’s statements. The mayor of Amsterdam dreamed out loud of a Dutch New York on Sunday in the TV program Zomergasten. “Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague are a big city with the Green Heart as Central Park,” he said. The Deltametropolis Association goes one step further and proposes that Brabant and the Arnhem-Nijmegen region also be part of this new city.
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