Inequality and urinification in Brussels, a tale of two cities

Brussels, Belgium, June 2022 Brussels, the European capital has become a tale of two cities. In the European quarter, young white people working for the European Union have a salary starting around 4000 euro while not paying income tax in Belgium, driving up prices for ordinary citizens. Young people amuse themselves in the center, that has become a carfree zone, While at daytime, this pedestrian zone is pleasant for tourists, at night the area changes in a no go zone taken over by homeless and drug dealers. Crime such as robbing tourists has become rampant. Police is hardly present and impunity reigns. The zones near the South, Central and North Stations, have become desolate areas where the new untouchables live. Drugdealing is rampant. Often illegal migrants have no other alternative to survive. The stench of urine is unbearable, inspiring Dutch urban anthropologist Teun Voeten to coin the term urinification, the exact opposite of gentrification.