Jubilæum 2
Vores andelsboligforening har 30 års
jubilæum i år. En gruppe idealistiske beboere tog sidst i 1980érne initiativ
til, at beboerne kunne købe den store ejendom med over 400 lejligheder. Det kom til at betyde næsten uoverkommelige udfordringer for de involverede samt stor bevågenhed i pressen i det efterfølgende forløb. Ikke mindst fordi ejendommen, hvis det lykkedes, ville være Danmarks, på det tidspunkt, største andelsboligforening.
Det lykkedes at købe ejendommen for den dengang formidable sum på 35 mio. og med over halvdelen af beboerne som købere, mens knap halvdelen valgte at fortsætte som lejere.
I dag 30 år efter, er næsten alle beboere
medlemmer af andelsboligforeningen. Og som det kan læses i bogen “Skydebanegade
– den pæne gade på Vesterbro”, medførte den efterfølgende store
Vesterbro-byfornyelse, byfornyelsestilskud svarende til omtrent ti gange købssummen.
Så i dag er det billede, pressen dengang i
1980érne tegnede af foreningen: “En nedslidt ejendom hærget af råd og svamp” og
“En svamperede uden termoruder, varmt vand eller centralvarme”, noget som hører
historien til.
Hun fik ret! Heldigvis, for den lejlighed,
jeg overtog, var ubeskrivelig. 84 nedslidte kvadratmeter øverst oppe på 4. sal.
hvor jeg skulle stille spande op hist og pist, hver gang det regnede. Jeg
husker det som om, det regnede konstant de første år! Vægge dækket med
“cigarkasse-træ” og forsænkede lofter, som man ikke vidste, hvad skjulte af råd
og svamp. Da min svigersøn hev loftspladerne ned, klaskede rockwool, der var
dobbelt så tykt som normalt pga. regn fra det utætte tag, ned på stuegulvet.
Intet komfur, men et par kogeplader, ingen centralvarme, men en
petroleumskamin, som min søn Tim fik til opgave at slæbe petroleum op til. Men
en vandseng var der... som jeg overtog for et “under-bordet” beløb, fordi dem
jeg byttede med ikke gad flytte den med. Nå, den brugte Tim et par år.
Skodlejlighed – men ca. halvandet år efter
flyttede vi i såkaldt genhusning i et år, mens den store byfornyelse totalt
ændrede vores ejendom, både inde og ude til et sted, som jeg i dag ikke kan
forestille mig at forlade. Jeg husker stadig en ung mand, under et møde, hvor
de til- og fravalg, man kunne ønske i sin lejlighed, blev drøftet. Entusiastisk
og højlydt gav han udtryk for, hvordan det skulle blive, når han kom tilbage
til sin moderniserede lejlighed: “Jeg skal løbe rundt uden en trævl på kroppen
i min centralopvarmede lejlighed og stå i timevis under den varme bruser i mit
nye badeværelse”. Jeg håber, han kom tilbage og fik sin drøm opfyldt. For
erkendes må det, at byfornyelsen også havde en bagside, især for de økonomisk
mindrebemidlede. En stigning af boligafgiften på 100%, fordelt over 5 år ganske
vist, betød at en del valgte permanent genhusning i et billigere område af
byen. Helt sikkert er det, at Byfornyelsen på godt og ondt har været
medvirkende årsag til, at det Vesterbro vi i dag ser, med en høj, såkaldt
hipster faktor, ligger milevidt fra den Vesterbro beboersammensætning, jeg
oplevede da jeg selv flyttede til bydelen.
Siden flyttede min Denis så ind og vi
tilkøbte og indrettede 30 kvadratmeter loft, samt et par år senere en altan, så
vi i dag har en lejlighed, som både beboere i gaden og mit ældste barnebarn
meget tydeligt tilkendegiver gerne at ville overtage, når vi en dag ikke
længere kan klare de 76 trappetrin op til fjerde sal.
Det får vente længe... forhåbentlig!
Anniversary 2
Our cooperative association has 30 years anniversary this year. In the late 1980s, a group of idealist residents took initiative that the residents could buy the whole property consisting of over 400 flats.
This resulted in almost prohibitive challenges for the involved, as well as
great awareness in the press in the subsequent course of events. Not least
because the property, if successful, would be at the time, Denmark's
largest housing cooperative.
They succeeded in buying the property for the, at the time, formidable sum
of 35 million Danish kroner, and with over half of the residents as buyers,
while less than half chose to continue as tenants.
Today 30 years after, almost all residents are now members of the housing
cooperative. And as you can read in the book "Skydebanegade - the nice
street on Vesterbro", the large Vesterbro urban renewal resulted in an
urban renewal grant, equivalent to about ten times the purchase price.
So today, the picture the press painted of the property in the 1980s: "A
run down property infested with rot and fungus" and "A fungus ridden
property without double glazing, hot water or central heating", is
something that belongs to the history books.
And that was how all the properties on the inner Vesterbro were then. In
1993, when I decided to swap my good, centrally heated flat in the suburbs with
in large green surroundings for life in the big city, I had several offers on
hand. However, it was Skydebanegade, which for several reasons attracted me
most, but with a location in one of the most run down districts of Copenhagen,
I was really in doubt. It was the, at that time, chairman of the association,
Frederikke, who made me take the decision. My childhood friend, Lillian, knew
Frederikke and therefore I felt I could rely on Frederikke's vivid description
of how the upcoming urban renewal would change the entire area.
She was right! Fortunately, because the flat I took over, was
indescribable. 84 run down square metres furthest up on the 4th floor, where I
had to position buckets around the flat every time it rained. I seem to
remember it, as if it rained constantly the first years! Walls covered with a
thin layer of "decorative" wooden cladding and wooden suspended
ceilings, which you did not know, what it hid of dry rot and fungus. When my
son-in-law removed the ceiling, wet panels of Rockwool crashed to the living room floor,
twice their normal thickness due to rain from the leaky roof. No cooker, but a
couple of hotplates, no central heating, but a petroleum stove, for which my
son Tim was assigned to carry petroleum up to. But there was a water bed...
which I had to buy with a sum under the table, because those I exchanged flats
with, couldn't be bothered to take it with them. Well, Tim used it for a couple
of years.
What a dump of a flat - but approx. one and a half years later, we were re-housed
for a year, while the big renewal totally changed our property, both inside and
out, to a place that I, to this day, cannot imagine leaving. I still remember a
young man, during a meeting, where you could decide which choices you could
make for your apartment. Enthusiastically and loudly, he exclaimed how it would
be, when he returned to his modernized apartment: "I will run around
without any clothes on, in my centrally heated apartment and stand for hours
under the hot shower in my new bathroom." I hope he returned and that his
dream was fulfilled; because the urban renewal also had a downside, especially
for the economically disadvantaged. An increase of 100% in rent, although
spread over 5 years meant that some chose permanent resettlement in a cheaper
area of the city. It is true, that the urban renewal for better and worse, has
contributed to the fact that the Vesterbro, we see today with a high so-called
hipster factor, lies milestones from the Vesterbro residents' composition,
which I experienced when moving to the district.
Since then, my Denis moved in and we bought and converted 30 square meters
of loft, and a couple of years later a balcony, so today we have an apartment,
which both the residents in the street and my oldest grandchild clearly
indicate, they want to want to take over, when we, one day, no longer can
manage the 76 steps up to the fourth floor.
They must wait a long time ... hopefully!
