Yolanda van Loo is a 52 year old single mom who lives in Tilburg West. She has lived for over 12 years and is originally from Boxtel, an other city in Noord Brabant. She has a daughter of 12 and they live with each other in an apartment near the Westermarkt.
The first impression with Tilburg West was not that good. She had heard stories about the neighbourhood when she still lived in Boxtel. She heard about the high crime rate and the types of people that supposedly are living here, but when she settled in, her opinion changed completely.
The prejudice wasn’t true and she really liked the people who were living in West. They were kind, always open for a chat and not at all the stereotype she thought they would be. Of course she noticed some drug problems and some antisocial people, but that wasn’t a reason to hate the neighbourhood. ‘’Every part of Tilburg has this kind of problems’’, she said.
What Yolanda especially likes is the accessibility, every one is open for a conversation and is not afraid to help each other. It is a multicultural neighbourhood and that is something Yolanda likes as well. “I have a Brazilian neighbour, a Turkish one and a couple from China. They are really kind and my contact with them is good, I think it is great to have so many nationalities in Tilburg West.” This shows progression from Tilburg West and she thinks the bad reputation with different cultures is misplaced. Yolanda’s child always plays with different children with different nationalities and so she comes in contact with their parents.
Yolanda’s favourite thing about Tilburg West is the social hotspots, there are good meeting spots and places to picknick for instance. She is very with the neighbourhood overall. Of course there is also a things that needs improvement, there are some places at night which people tend to use for drug-use. She sometimes feels unsafe, so that is something the police or the neighbourhood watch can look into. But what has improved are the services here in Tilburg West.
Yolanda concludes that her opinion has completely changed after living here for a few years. From being scared to live here with all the bad stories, to helping the community in Tilburg West and working in her own shop. Yolanda is very happy.