Ommoord is a neighbourhood in the former borough Prins Alexander, part of the municipality of Rotterdam, South Holland, the Netherlands. Ommoord is surrounded by the neighbourhoods Zevenkamp, Het Lage Land and Terbregge. It has around 25.000 inhabitants across 12.500 households. Ommoord shares postal codes 3068 (south of metro line) and 3069 (north of metro line) with Zevenkamp.
The river Rotte flows along the northern border of the Ommoord neighborhood and the former borough of Prins Alexander. Two recreational areas lie on the other side of Rotte river, Lage Bergsche Bos and the area around the artificial ski mountain, based on a former landfill, belonging to Bergschenhoek, now part of the combined municipal council for Lansingerland.
Local administration
Ommoord used to be governed by the borough of Prins Alexander, but the system of deelgemeentes (boroughs) has been abolished in March 2014 and powers have been returned to the central administration in Rotterdam town hall. Neighborhood committees have replaced borough administrations, but with very limited budget, the neighborhood committee for Ommoord has become window dressing, if not completely irrelevant.
Neighbourhoods
Ommoord has 15 neighbourhoods: Bloemenbuurt (flower-neighbourhood), Bremmenbuurt (broom), Distelbuurt (thistle), Doornenbuurt (thorns), Grasbuurt (grass), Heidebuurt (heather), Bessenbuurt (berries), Klaverbuurt (clover), Kruidenbuurt (herbs), Middengebied-West (Middle area-West), Middengebied-Centrum (Middle area-Center), Middengebied-Oost (Middle area-East), Mossenbuurt (moss), Rozenbuurt (roses) and the Varenbuurt (fern).
There are official names for neighborhoods in Ommoord like Machielenkamp, Willenskamp, Zwansnesse, Buitenlust, Baersmeer, Romeijnshof-Noord, Boekholt, Hoogerbrugge and Keizershof, but these names have never been in popular use. For streets within the high rise area, people often refer to the closest metro station. Those who live in a house refer to plants, if they do not mention their exact street name.
Four avenues surround a middle area where high rise buildings (8, 14 or 20 floors) dominate the urban landscape. Much of Ommoord's social housing can be found in flats in this middle area, surrounded by President Wilsonweg (north side), Martin Luther Kingweg (east side), President Rooseveltweg (south side) and John Mottweg (west side). The two metro lines run through the centre line of this middle area.
Many streets in the middle area of Ommoord have been named after Nobel prize winners, most of them ending in -plaats, meaning square, but often being just parking lots. All streets named after plants lack the 'straat' (street) in their name. People living in low houses in streets named after plants tend to be mostly home owners, richer than people renting flats in the central area of Ommoord.
Ommoord was built at the beginning of the 1970s. Until well into the 1990s, lower class and middle-class people were living rather mixed in the high rise buildings in Ommoord's middle area. Increases in rent for people with higher incomes and the obligation to provide housing to refugees, forced upon social housing corporations, has caused a shift in population of flats, increasing the number of lower class inhabitants.
De Ommoordse kip, a large wooden chicken, is positioned next to a parking lot at President Wilsonweg. It started as advertisement for De Blijde Wei (in English: the happy meadow), a farm with animals meant to visit with children, but de Kip has become a monument in its own right, adopted by the community, after having suffered from football hooligans painting it orange for Euro and world football tournaments.
Next to the metro station lies community building 'Romeynshof', housing a library. Many clubs and organizations forming the social infrastructure of Ommoord neighborhood have been chased out of their rooms in the Romeynshof when the central town administration started to charge commercial rents to volunteers who could not afford this. The Covid pandemic gave them the last blow. Romeynshof will be demolished and rebuilt.
Ommoord has six supermarkets and two shopping centres, Binnenhof, on the western side of the middle area and Hesseplaats, on the eastern side of the middle area. An even larger shopping centre is next to Prins Alexander railway station, just outside of Ommoord. A market is held every Wednesday on the west end of Hesseplaats, but its popularity is declining, as Ommoord's population is changing.