“Built on goodwill”: Ghent mayor finalist for World Mayor Prize

Ever since Lonely Planet discovered the capital of East Flanders in 2009, there’s no travel guide that hasn’t added Ghent to its list of favourites. The city’s international reputation might soon receive an additional boost, but this time not for its merits as a travel destination. 

Ghent’s Daniël Termont has made it to the final round of the 2014 World Mayor Prize, awarded every other year to an outstanding mayor anywhere in the world by the London-based City Mayors Foundation, an international think tank dedicated to local government.

Termont himself isn’t exactly sure why he is in the final three vying for the prize, whittled down from a shortlist of 26 mayors worldwide. “What I know is that the City Mayor Foundation applauds my approach to intra-European migration, urban development and international development plans,” he says.

Termont (pictured) thinks his World Mayor nomination sprang not only from the policies he has adopted, but from the international exposure the city has been getting as of late. “Ghent is a pioneer in many fields,” he says. “It was the first in Europe to ban cars from most of the centre, the first to sign the climate-neutral covenant. I am invited to congresses around the world to talk about those moves. We’re quite visible on the international stage.”

Termont says one of his own greatest contributions to the city has been a psychological one. “I have given people a sense of pride in their city,” he says, “and, more than ever before, Ghent is built on goodwill. There’s togetherness. I motivate people to work together, to organise more parties and celebrations. More contact leads to a strong social life; it fosters innovation and creativity. No wonder the sharing economy is booming in this city.”

Sharing responsibilities

Among other priorities, Termont’s policy vision is based on sharing responsibilities with inhabitants. “Big responsibilities,” he emphasises. He gives the example of a medieval abbey in the heart of the city. “It’s beautiful and interesting, but we don’t have the time nor people to develop the site. The neighbourhood committee suggested opening it on weekends and serving coffee to visitors. We agreed, handed them the key to the site and took care of the needed subsidies.”

And Termont says similar project are mushrooming across the city. “People can take initiative; they don’t have to wait for elections to cast a vote on how they want to see the city changed. Plus, projects like these bring neighbourhoods closer together.”

Termont also wants to stay as close to residents as possible, and he means it. He says his office answers every email he gets within 10 minutes and, when invited to neighbourhood parties, he does whatever he can to make an appearance. “I can’t attend them all, but, believe me, I attend an awful lot,” he says. “Citizens need to have the feeling that the door to the city hall is always open, that we’re close and approachable.”

But all that glitters is not gold. Poverty looms beneath the surface of the historical centre’s splendour. According to stats from the OCMW social aid agency, Ghent has the highest poverty rate in the country, with one in five children growing up below the poverty line. Moreover, the rate is rising

“We’re all fortune-seekers”

“I cannot do anything about the increase because it’s a global trend,” Termont says. “The poor get poorer and the rich richer. But our high poverty rate can be explained. We have always had socialists in the city council, who wanted to take care of the underprivileged. Consequently, Ghent has the highest percentage of social housing units in Belgium – more than 13%. This high percentage of social housing, quite logically, attracts people with a low income or on unemployment benefits.” 

Termont points out that the city has faced other demographic challenges since he was elected. “In the last eight years, approximately 25,000 Eastern Europeans – mostly unemployed Roma – migrated to our city,” he says. “Those people have the right to come here; we’re all fortune-seekers.”

Still, he says, the city has reached a pivotal moment. “There is no space left for decent housing or proper schooling,” he admits. “We cannot offer any quality of life to new arrivals. But we have no instruments at hand to stop the flow. Recently, this city council started social economy projects in Bulgaria, in the four villages where most of our immigrants come from. Creating jobs at home, we want to discourage them from coming here.”

Ghent’s increasing popularity among other population groups has also come at a cost. As its trendy reputation has led to the gentrification of local neighbourhoods, house prices have more than doubled over the last decade. The result has been that average young families can’t afford to buy a house and have moved away from the city centre.

At the same time, the city centre is becoming a tourist trap of sorts. Is the mayor concerned that his city will soon resemble a cultural Disneyland, in the image of Bruges, where tourists have been known to ask when the gates to the park will be closed. 

While Termont says he can’t do anything about the rising house prices, he firmly disagrees that Ghent will ever turn into another Bruges. “Ghent could never turn into a museum,” he says. “Look around you; this office has been the office of the mayor for the last four centuries. In Bruges, it would have been turned into a museum by now. Here, we still live and work in our monuments.”

The World Mayor Prize will be announced on 3 February

photo courtesy stad Gent