SB Mener, Carlsen quarter | Urban development is being held hostage in the Carlsen quarter

Now it was just decided that Carlsenkvartalet AS will have its development agreement extended by 12 new months. Meanwhile, the decay continues… Should nothing happen?

The quarter now looks more like a crime scene.

It started as a slightly original idea. “Think big” was to be launched, and there was talk of placing giant letters in the Bathing Park or another clever place. But the project met with resistance and instead we got a mural “Sandefjordsveggen” in Carlsenkvartalet.

Two large graffiti blue whales were therefore replaced in the summer of 2016 by “Sandefjord” in giant letters on the eight meter high and 50 meter wide wall, well seasoned with local motifs. The site, which has lain fallow and been used as a car park since 2002, was now supposed to shine.

But instead of symbolizing a city that tries to think big, the mural has over time become an involuntary symbol of Sandefjord’s unresolved challenges. Because even in the capital of paint, there are no color mixes strong enough to hide underlying problems.

If it is true that Sandefjord is a city of facades, this is where we meet ourselves at the door.

The painting is disintegrating and has been partially replaced by a kind of tarpaulin which has also begun to disintegrate.

For now, the mural has become a kind of counterpoint to everything we are not successful at.

The mural symbolizes social distress. Young people use the parking lot in the old timber warehouse to get high. There have been several fires. Let’s hope we avoid overdoses. We keep seeing signs that many young people in Sandefjord are not doing well. We have higher numbers of bullying than the rest of the country, and there is also a worryingly high level of youth crime.

The mural symbolizes a lack of will to invest in infrastructure. Several times a day, the car queues snake their way past the area, in queues that may be liveable now – but shouldn’t the city grow? How will it be then?

The mural symbolizes the municipality’s inability to manage the population’s access to the water. The mistrust is palpable after several development projects have ended up becoming gigantic barriers to the coastal zone. Perhaps that explains some of the opposition to the proposals that have so far been launched for the Carlsen quarter?

Perhaps the mural also symbolizes the city’s inability to take care of its cultural history? Recently, Bjerggata and the surrounding area wrote a report of concern to Malme Eiendomsutvikling AS and Sandefjord municipality, there have been several fires – what about the wooden house development in Bjerggata?

So there is no shortage of good ideas about what should happen in the Carlsen quarter either. In fact, there are so many ideas that there are now two working groups which, on their own initiative, launch one well-intentioned proposal after another. Everything from the Maritime Center and the pier square to promenades and food halls have been proposed.

Now it was recently decided that the municipality will investigate what these proposals will cost. At the same time, the development agreement with the builders is extended by 12 months.

Meanwhile, still nothing happens.

Or to put it in other words: In the Carlsen quarter, urban development has been taken hostage, without me being entirely sure who is the hostage-taker: Is it the developers, is it the friends’ associations or is it simply the municipality’s inability to make a choice of direction ?

What is certain in any case is that the tangle will not be resolved without a choice of direction which means that at least one party will be really angry.

Perhaps it also applies to the underlying problems, such as bullying and youth crime, infrastructure and access to the coastal zone? Perhaps the municipality needs to make some clear direction choices?

(Background conditions: Sandefjords Blad currently rents parking spaces in the old timber warehouse at Carlsentomta).