In changing Dubai, a once isolated village to be razed to the ground
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
From the porch of their cinder block house, Garry and Amanda James gaze at Dubai’s skyscrapers and huge shopping malls.
It is a horizon that, in their youth, had seemed incredibly distant to them. Outside Amanda’s childhood home, in the same spot three decades ago, there were miles of empty desert.
Throughout Dubai’s meteoric rise from a small pearl town to a booming financial center, Jebel Ali Village, a collection of cottages built in the late 1970s for European port workers, has remained largely the same. .
It is a relic from another time. Expatriate residents always stroll along quiet, windswept roads and play Christmas bingo at the clubhouse.
But now the bulldozers are coming.
Nakheel, the state developer of Dubai’s iconic palm-shaped islands, has unveiled plans to demolish the neighborhood to make way for a gated community of two-story luxury villas. Residents found 12-month eviction notices stuck to their doors.
“We’re just emptied,” said Amanda James, 53, whose British father first moved the family to the village in 1984. “I came here during the Iran-Iraq war. I stayed during the two Gulf Wars. … We have had three generations. There is a story of people growing up, meeting each other, having families here. “
In response to a request for comment, Nakheel said it informed residents of its plans and complied with legal requirements.
“We recognize the importance of Jebel Ali Village to the history of Dubai and its people and for this reason we have made the decision to redevelop the community to preserve and enhance its longevity for many generations to come. coming, ”the company said, saying the planned swimming pools, parks, sports fields and bike paths would bring residents together in new ways.
As oil exploded in the 1970s, American and European employees of international oil conglomerates, drawn by generous living allowances, descended on the dusty cities of the Persian Gulf. Expats settled with their families in well-guarded communities in the region, turning outposts like the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. complexes into meticulously landscaped replicas of the California suburb.
Dubai didn’t have a lot of oil, but used what it did to build Jebel Ali, the region’s first major maritime hub and dry dock. Dutch and British port workers moved into concrete block houses. As the neighborhood grew, a school sprang up. As are the stables, a swimming pool and a clubhouse where residents have come together to exchange stories over brunches and beers.
“This sense of community is quite unique to this place,” said Donna Dickinson, a 40-year-old woman from Norfolk, England, who spent her teenage years in the village and returned with her family last year “to to reproduce for my children the childhood that I had.
Locals recalled the rapid changes in the city that culminated in 2002 when the ruler of Dubai allowed foreigners to purchase property in areas of the emirate. This sparked a real estate frenzy fueled by speculators.
Extravagant housing estates, sprawling golf courses, luxury resorts, elaborate water parks and gigantic shopping malls crammed into the vicinity of the James’ house. Over time, the coral stone houses of the emirate’s rulers along Dubai Creek have been gutted and leveled.
“Much of history has been torn down and replaced,” said Todd Reisz, author of “Showpiece City: How Architecture Made Dubai,” unleashing shaved treasures. “Change is inevitable for a city that is always trying to meet the demands of the market. But there are still places of culture and places where we understand our history. ”
Nakheel announced plans to renovate Jebel Ali village and evicted residents before demolition. But the real estate bubble burst in 2008. The company, grappling with billions of dollars in debt, has abandoned its vision for the site.
As Dubai property prices plunged and oil-rich Abu Dhabi saved the emirate from bankruptcy, houses in the village remained empty. Years later, as the economy recovered, Nakheel allowed residents old and new to return, willing to spend to restore the scruffy community to its former glory.
“When you’re an expat, having some kind of history in a place is a pretty difficult thing,” Dickinson said as his 7-year-old son bounced off a trampoline. Behind him loomed the gigantic aluminum smelter in Dubai, near the port.
In a city of transit where foreigners with short-term visas without a path to citizenship outnumber locals, the village “has always been my home, really, in my heart,” he said. she declared.
Yet clues have emerged that one of Dubai’s last strongholds of the 1970s may soon be gone.
In 2017, Nakheel transformed the rustic clubhouse into a stylish pub with suede chairs and added a movie theater named after Food Network star Guy Fieri – in stark contrast to the dilapidated village houses. Even when the children on bikes returned to the winding roads, some houses remained abandoned, attracting loud teenagers in search of secret party spots much to the chagrin of residents.
The village crackled with rumors about Nakheel’s plans to demolish everything. But it was only last week that residents’ worst fears were confirmed. Leaflets declaring that “the past has a new future” covered their cars and gates, advertising modern villas made of glass and steel.
The remaining residents of Jebel Ali will not be offered property in future villas, which many cannot afford, and all will have to try and find accommodation elsewhere. Some said they would consider leaving Dubai entirely.
Monique Buitendag, a 37-year-old South African who spent a fortune on renovations just a few months ago, is seething.
“They knew it was going to happen, and they still sold us the dream,” she said. “It’s just going to look like the rest of the posh villas. … You are losing this little piece of old Dubai. ”
Cory Rhodes, a 43-year-old man from Oregon whose cozy cottage also serves as a school for his business and his daughters’ home, is heartbroken.
“The emotional feeling you get from living here, you just won’t get it anywhere else,” he said grimly.
Amanda James has experienced whiplash before. Reflecting on the stubborn pace of the old village, she wonders if Dubai risks losing more than it gains.
“I hope the young people of today don’t think of Dubai as Disneyland – because it isn’t,” she said, gazing at the city’s slender towers lit up in the mist. “There was so much depth.”