Waterfront
de waterkant

In Baltimore and many other historical port cities around the world, once-bustling harbor activities moved out of their original inner-city locations toward deeper waters that could accommodate the ever-larger ships being built in the years after World War II.  This left many inner-city harbor areas vacant and decaying.  Developed in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, one of the world’s first attempts to revitalize a dilapidated harbor area, inspired Rotterdam to initiate a similar revitalization of the Kop van Zuid (“South-Head”) area of its own inner-city harbor. 

This exchange of ideas for solving an important urban redevelopment problem was the spark that led to the establishment of the sister city relationship between Baltimore and Rotterdam. The exchange of ideas has continued over the years as the Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee has hosted many delegations from Rotterdam, visiting Baltimore to learn about new developments in waterfront revitalization, and Baltimore citizens and officials have contributed ideas for Rotterdam’s waterfront.

Rotterdam waterfront. (Photo: © BRSCC)

Climate change and rising seawaters

Baltimore and Rotterdam are port cities and will be affected by rising seawaters and storm surges as a result of climate change. Rotterdam is a member of Resilient Cities Network (a continuation of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative) and home of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA). A 2022 article in the Shrinking Cities Project talks about how Rotterdam is transforiming its climate adaptatoon expertise into opportunities. Learn about Rotterdam’s creative use of technology and smart urban planning to mitigate the effects of climate change in this New York Times article from 2017 and a 2019 segment about flood resiliency in the 60 Minutes tv show (Watch video). The Netherlands is providing its water management expertise and technology to coastal areas around the world.

Examples of knowledge exchange and collaboration between our regions:

• In 2023, a Urban Dialogues program launched with Baltimore, Rotterdam, and The Hague to work on city challenges related to climate resilience and food resilience.
• In November 2021, representatives from Maryland Department of Emergency Management travelled to the Netherlands for a flood-resilience themed trip and participated in a panel discussion at Amsterdam Water Week.
• Maryland and the Netherlands held a joint climate resilience symposium in January 2021.
• In 2018, several reps from Dutch government, institutes, and Port of Rotterdam traveled to Baltimore to speak at GreenPort Congress about climate change mitigation and adaptation in ports.
• In late March 2019, a Dutch delegation came to Baltimore to discuss solutions to flood resiliency challenges with the Baltimore region.

 

Rotterdam’s PortXL Accelerator

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has launched, together with international partners, the startup accelerator program PortXL. PortXL is an accelerator program focusing on port related industries offering an ecosystem of founders, corporate partners, investors and mentors that support and accelerate the entrepreneurial journey.

PortXL website

Boating

Both cities have an active interest in shipping, historical reconstructions, boat racing, and other activities related to the harbor. The committee helps host visiting naval ships and other boats. The Dutch clipper chip “Stad Amsterdam” regularly visits Baltimore’s waterfront.

De Boompjes

Years ago, Rotterdam invited Baltimore, London, Hamburg, and Barcelona to participate in conceptualizing ideas for the revitalization of an important urban waterfront area in Rotterdam — De Boompjes. Baltimore's concept plan was produced by the Baltimore Development Corporation, with contributions from several Baltimore architectural firms. Baltimore’s contribution was included in a 2001 exhibition, in conjunction with Rotterdam’s year as “Cultural Capital of Europe.”