Map of Almere - The Full Wiki

Wikipedia article:

Map showing all locations mentioned on Wikipedia article:

Almere ( ) is a city and municipality in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands, bordering Lelystad

and Zeewolde

. The municipality of Almere comprises the districts Almere Stad

, Almere Haven

, Almere Buiten

, Almere Hout, Almere Poort (under construction) and Almere Pampus (design phase).

Almere is one of the youngest cities in the Netherlands: the first house was finished in 1976, and Almere became a municipality in 1984. It is the largest municipality in Flevoland with184,405 citizens (7 July 2008), and the 8th largest in the Netherlands

. In October 2007, the city council of Almere made agreements with the government to expand the city to 350,000 inhabitants by 2030.

History

The original plans for the IJsselmeerpolders saw the land being used for agriculture. However, after World War II housing was needed for the rapidly growing population of Amsterdam

and two towns were planned in the polders Oostelijk Flevoland and Zuidelijk Flevoland. The town in Oostelijk Flevoland became Lelystad

. The town in Zuidelijk Flevoland was still called Zuidweststad (English: South West City) on the first sketches, but in the 1970s it became called Almere, named after the early medieval name of the Zuiderzee

. The first house in Almere was finished in 1976. At that time the town wasstill controlled by the Openbaar Lichaam Zuidelijke IJsselmeerpolders (Z.IJ.P.), with a Landdrost. In 1984 Almere became an official municipality. Originally, Almere was envisioned as a town with multiple centres. This idea was later abandoned in favor of allowing neighbourhoods like Tussen de Vaarten to be built. There is also a difference between the way houses are built in the oldest and the newest parts of the city. The housing plan in Almere in the 1970s was basic functionality and a levelling of social status. However, starting in the 1990s more exclusive homes with striking designs were built (e.g., in the Regenboogbuurt).

Governance

Local executive

Former minister Annemarie Jorritsma-Lebbink (VVD) has been the mayor of Almere since 16 August 2003. On 7 April 2006 the new council wasinaugurated.

A list of mayors:

1984 - 1986 Han Lammers (PvdA)
1986 - 1993 Cees de Cloe (PvdA)
1993 - 1994 Cees Roozemond (PvdA, supervisor)
1994 - 1998 Ralph Pans (PvdA)
1998 - 2003 Hans Ouwerkerk (PvdA)
2003 - 2003 Jaap van der Doef (PvdA, supervisor)
2003 - present Annemarie Jorritsma-Lebbink (VVD)

City council

The first local council was installed on 2 January 1984 in the presence of the then minister of the Interior Koos Rietkerk. The council elections took place on 21 September 1983. Prior to 1984 Almere had an Adviesraad, which was chosen every 2 years (1978-1980, 1980-1982, 1982-1984). This Adviesraad was made up of different political parties similar to a local council. On 11 March 1977 the first adviescommissie was elected. It consisted of 5 people that were chosen on personal title.Since 1998, the council of Almere has a total of 39 members.

Party	1984	1986	1990	1994	1998	2002	2006
PvdA	10	14	9	6	9	7	12
VVD	5	5	7	10	12	8	7
Leefbaar Almere	-	-	-	-	-	9	4
SP	-	-	-	-	-	-	4
GroenLinks	2	1	3	4	4	4	3
CDA	2	3	4	3	3	4	3
Almere Partij	-	1	2	2	3	2	2
ChristenUnie	-	-	-	-	1	1	2
D66	1	2	7	10	5	2	1
Verenigde Senioren Partij	-	-	-	-	1	1	1
Stadspartij Almere	-	-	-	-	1	1	-
CP/CD	2	1	1	2	-	-	-
Stap '84	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	23	27	33	37	39	39	39

Twin cities

Almere maintains international relations with the following twin cities:

Geography

Map of Almere.

Almere is located in the polder of Southern Flevoland (Dutch: Zuidelijk Flevoland). It is the most western municipality of the province Flevoland. It borders with Lake Marken

in the west and north, Lelystad

in the northeast, Zeewolde

in the east, and Lake Gooi

in the south.

Almere consists of six districts (Dutch: stadsdelen), three of which are under construction.

Name	Year	Location
Almere Haven	1976
Almere Stad	1980
Almere Buiten	1984
Almere Hout	1991
Almere Poort	2000
Almere Pampus	-

Demography

Almere is known for hosting Defqon1, an annual Q-dance rave/hardstyle event, which attracts around 40,000 people.

Theater "Schouwburg Almere"

	Almere Haven	Almere Stad	Almere Buiten	Almere Hout	Almere Poort	Almere in total
1970						52
1975						47
1980	6596					6632
1985	21410	17240	1559			40297
1990	22355	37024	11499			71087
1995	22376	58816	22740	564		104496
2000	22237	83934	35290	1336		142797
2005	22590	103560	47358	1366		175008
2007	22507	105261	51751	1345	134	180998

Transport

The traffic infrastructure in Almere is recognisable because of itsseparate infrastructure for cycles (which have separate cycle paths), carsand buses (In Almere the buses drive on a separate bus lane).Almere is connected to the motorways the A6 and theA27.

Railway

In 1987 Almere was connected to the national railway system (seeNS) in 1988 with the fully completedFlevolijn which connected Weesp

to Lelystad Centrum

.Almere currently has five railway stations:

Almere Muziekwijk (opened in 1987)
Almere Centrum (opened in 1987)
Almere Parkwijk (opened in 1996)
Almere Buiten (opened in 1987)
Almere Oostvaarders (opened in 2004).

A sixth station for Almere Poort

will probably open within 3 years.

Public buses

In Almere there are 10 bus lines which service the urban area:

1 Almere Buiten Stripheldenbuurt-Almere Haven De Marken
2 CS Almere-Gooisekant
3 Almere de Vaart-Almere Haven Centrun
4 CS Almere-Almere Poort Columbuskwartier
5 Almere Oostvaarders-Almere 't Oor (bus station)
6 CS Almere-Almere Parkwijk
7 Almere Noorderplassen-Almere Sallandsekant
8 CS Almere-Kemphaan
9 Almere Buiten-Almere de Vaart
10 Almere Buiten- Almere Stad Gooisekant

Most buses run about every 7 minutes.The bus company that runs the buses is called Connexxion and thename of the local bus system is called Maxx Almere owned byConnexxion. In the buses one can use the national bus tickets,subscriptions or one can buy bus tickets of Maxx Almere.

Besides the local bus lines there are regional bus lines to Hilversum