A gloomy tunnel in the Diestsestraat

From the Diestse straat there is a rather dark passage under a business to the Demer car park. The darkness yawns towards you and the stairs down give you the feeling of descending to Hades. Cigarette butts, wrinkled cans, a smell of urine... This is not a reassuring place for a lone night walker. In 2017, some local residents contacted the alderman. After youth centre De Klinker gave a first impetus by spraying the name of the city on the wall as a simple quickpiece in red letters, the alderman agreed: "We agree that there must be an artistic solution. You can't put cameras everywhere. The more beautiful the decoration, the more respectful people are of an environment. Hopefully less mess will be left behind when something beautiful appears here." That will take some time to come. An invitation to wall artists to come up with attractive proposals to beautify this gloomy place apparently did not have the desired effect.

Jan Rymenams