Almere

Almere (Dutch pronunciation: [ɑlˈmeːrə]) is a planned city and municipality in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands, bordering Lelystad and Zeewolde. The municipality of Almere comprises the districts Almere Stad, Almere Buiten, Almere Oosterwold (design phase) and Almere Pampus (planned for future). and the boroughs of Almere Haven, Almere Hout and Almere Poort.

Almere is the newest city in the Netherlands: the land on which Almere sits, the Southern Flevoland Polder, was reclaimed from the IJsselmeer in 1959-68. The first house was finished in 1976, and Almere became a municipality in 1984. It is the largest municipality in Flevoland with 196,290 citizens in 2014 and the 7th largest in the Netherlands.^[5] In October 2007, the city council of Almere made agreements with the government to expand the city to 350,000 inhabitants by 2030.^[6]

History

The original plans for the IJsselmeerpolders saw the land being used for agriculture. However, after World War II housing was needed for the rapidly growing population of Amsterdam and two towns were planned in the polders Oostelijk Flevoland and Zuidelijk Flevoland. The town in Oostelijk Flevoland became Lelystad. The town in Zuidelijk Flevoland was still called Zuidweststad (English: South West City) on the first sketches, but in the 1970s it became called Almere, named after the lake Almere, the early medieval name of the Zuiderzee. The first house in Almere was finished in 1976. At that time the town was still controlled by the Openbaar Lichaam Zuidelijke IJsselmeerpolders (Z.IJ.P.), with a Landdrost. In 1984 Almere became an official municipality. Originally, Almere was envisioned as a town with multiple centres. This idea was later abandoned in favor of allowing neighbourhoods like Tussen de Vaarten to be built. There is also a difference between the way houses are built in the oldest and the newest parts of the city. The housing plan in Almere in the 1970s was basic functionality and a levelling of social status. However, starting in the 1990s more exclusive homes with striking designs were built (e.g., in the Regenboogbuurt).

Governance

Local executive

Former minister Annemarie Jorritsma-Lebbink (VVD) has been the mayor of Almere since 16 August 2003. On 20 May 2010 the new council was inaugurated. The populist Party for Freedom had won the most seats in the local elections, which was both national and international news due to the controversial statements of its leader Geert Wilders. Even though the largest party they didn't take part in the local administration.

Henk Mulder (PvdA)
Ineke Smidt (PvdA)
Arno Visser (VVD)
Ben Scholten (VVD)
René Peeters (D66)
Ed Anker (CDA/CU)

List of mayors:

1984 - 1986 Han Lammers (PvdA)
1986 - 1993 Cees de Cloe (PvdA)
1993 - 1994 Cees Roozemond (PvdA, supervisor)
1994 - 1998 Ralph Pans (PvdA)
1998 - 2003 Hans Ouwerkerk (PvdA)
2003 - 2003 Jaap van der Doef (PvdA, supervisor)
2003–present Annemarie Jorritsma-Lebbink (VVD)

City council

The first local council was installed on 2 January 1984 in the presence of the then minister of the Interior Koos Rietkerk. The council elections took place on 21 September 1983. Prior to 1984 Almere had an Adviesraad, which was chosen every 2 years (1978–1980, 1980–1982, 1982–1984). This Adviesraad was made up of different political parties similar to a local council. On 11 March 1977 the first adviescommissie was elected. It consisted of 5 people that were chosen on personal title. Since 1998, the council of Almere has a total of 39 members.

Party	1984	1986	1990	1994	1998	2002	2006	2010
PVV	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	9
PvdA	10	14	9	6	9	7	12	8
VVD	5	5	7	10	12	8	7	7
Leefbaar Almere	-	-	-	-	-	9	4	3
SP	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	2
GroenLinks	2	1	3	4	4	4	3	3
CDA	2	3	4	3	3	4	3	2
Almere Partij	-	1	2	2	3	2	2	-
ChristenUnie	-	-	-	-	1	1	2	1
D66	1	2	7	10	5	2	1	3
Trots op Nederland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Verenigde Senioren Partij	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	-
Stadspartij Almere	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-
CP/CD	2	1	1	2	-	-	-	-
Stap '84	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	23	27	33	37	39	39	39	39

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Almere maintains international relations with the following twin cities:^[7]^[8]

Geography

Satellite image of the Flevoland polder island.

Topographic map of Almere, Sept. 2014

Overview map of Almere.

Almere is located in the polder of Southern Flevoland (Dutch: Zuidelijk Flevoland). It is the most western municipality of the province Flevoland. It borders with Lake Marken in the west and north, Lelystad in the northeast, Zeewolde in the east, and Lake Gooi in the south.

Almere consists of three boroughs and three districts (Dutch: stadsdelen), three of which are under construction.^[10]

Name	Year^[11]	Location
Almere Haven	1976
Almere Stad	1980
Almere Buiten	1984
Almere Hout	1991
Almere Poort	2000
Almere Pampus	-

Climate

Almere has an oceanic climate characterized by mild to cool winters, and warm summers with fair precipitation year round.

Climate data for Almere
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	4.9 (40.8)	5.5 (41.9)	8.2 (46.8)	9.6 (49.3)	16.2 (61.2)	19.3 (66.7)	20.8 (69.4)	21.0 (69.8)	18.5 (65.3)	14.2 (57.6)	8.9 (48)	5.9 (42.6)	12.75 (54.95)
Daily mean °C (°F)	2.2 (36)	2.5 (36.5)	4.8 (40.6)	6.7 (44.1)	11.9 (53.4)	14.9 (58.8)	16.5 (61.7)	16.6 (61.9)	14.3 (57.7)	10.6 (51.1)	6.1 (43)	3.4 (38.1)	9.21 (48.58)
Average low °C (°F)	−0.4 (31.3)	−0.4 (31.3)	1.5 (34.7)	3.8 (38.8)	7.6 (45.7)	10.5 (50.9)	12.3 (54.1)	12.2 (54)	10.1 (50.2)	7.1 (44.8)	3.4 (38.1)	0.9 (33.6)	5.72 (42.29)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	68.0 (2.677)	47.0 (1.85)	59.0 (2.323)	45.0 (1.772)	53.0 (2.087)	62.0 (2.441)	75.0 (2.953)	77.0 (3.031)	76.0 (2.992)	80.0 (3.15)	78.0 (3.071)	76.0 (2.992)	838.2 (33)
Source: climatedata.org (1981–2010 normals)^[12]

Demography

Inhabitants by origin

In 2011

2011	Numbers	%
Dutch natives	118,902	62.3
European immigrants	18,617	9.8
Non European immigrants	53,136	27.9
Surinam	21,183	11.1
Morocco	6,900	3.6
Turkey	3,262	1.7
Netherlands Antilles and Aruba	4,750	2.5
Others	17,041	8.9

	Almere Haven	Almere Stad	Almere Buiten	Almere Hout	Almere Poort	Almere in total
1970						52
1975						47
1980	6596					6632
1985	21410	17240	1559			40297
1990	22355	37024	11499			71087
1995	22376	58816	22740	564		104496
2000	22237	83934	35290	1336		142797
2005	22590	103560	47358	1366		175008
2007	22507	105261	51751	1345	134	180998

Sport

Almere is the home of Almere City FC

Transport

Theatre "Schouwburg Almere"

The traffic infrastructure in Almere is recognisable because of its separate infrastructure for cycles (which have separate cycle paths), cars and buses (In Almere the buses drive on a separate bus lane). Almere is connected to the motorways the A6 and the A27.

Railway

In 1987 Almere was connected to the national railway system (see NS) with the fully completed Flevolijn which connected Weesp to Lelystad Centrum. Almere currently has six railway stations:

Almere Poort (opened on December 9, 2012)
Almere Muziekwijk (opened in 1987)
Almere Centrum (opened in 1987)
Almere Parkwijk (opened on February 1, 1996)
Almere Buiten (opened in 1987)
Almere Oostvaarders (opened in 2004)

A temporary station, Almere Strand, is set up for certain events, such as Libelle Zomerweek. It was closed just after the summer of 2012 and the iron platforms were torn down at the weekend of October 6–7, 2012, due to the opening of the closely located Almere Poort.

Public buses

In Almere there are 10 bus lines which service the urban area:

1 Almere Buiten Stripheldenbuurt - Almere CS - Almere Haven De Marken
2 Almere CS - Almere Poort Topsporthal - Almere Poort Station
4 Almere CS - Almere Poort Homeruskwartier - Almere Poort Station
5 Almere Oostvaarders - Almere CS
6 Noorderplassen - CS Almere - Almere Parkwijk Station
7 Almere CS - Almere Parkwijk Station - Almere Sallandsekant
10 Almere de Vaart/PIA - 't Oor - Almere Poort Station
14 Almere CS - Almere Muziekwijk Station - Almere Poort Station (only during the wintermonths and during rush hours)

Most buses run about every 7,5 minutes (8 times every hour). The bus company that runs the buses is called Connexxion and the name of the local bus system is called Maxx Almere owned by Connexxion. In the buses one can use the national transportation chipcard (smart card), subscriptions or one can buy bus tickets of Maxx Almere.

Besides the local bus lines there are regional bus lines to Naarden & Bussum (151), Hilversum (156), Zeewolde & Harderwijk (159), Nijkerk (160), Amsterdam Amstel (322 and 327) and Amsterdam Bijlmer & Amsterdam Holendrecht (328)

In addition to the regional bus lines, there are also spitsbusses (buses that only run during rush hours) to Utrecht (150), Amsterdam (153 and 155), Amstelveen & Schiphol (215 and 216).

Since April 2012 a new rush hour bus line, 150, to Utrecht connects Almere directly with the University Area of Utrecht called De Uithof. (This was previously done by former bus line 700).

Notable residents

Ali B (16 October 1981), Rapper, show host presenter, music label owner
Danny Holla (31 December 1987), footballer
Hedwiges Maduro (14 February 1985), footballer
Yfke Sturm (19 November 1981), international model
Danny Masseling also known as Angerfist (20 June 1981), hardcore producer and DJ
Jörgen Raymann, TV host
Quinty Trustfull, TV host