Mayor wants to give hipster mecca a facelift

Copenhagen’s trendy Kødbyen district is in need of a fix-up, Mayor Frank Jensen thinks. 

 

Jensen wants to see the city invest in making Kødbyen a better and more attractive destination for businesses. 

 

“Kødbyen in Vesterbro should get a lift so that it can attract even more businesses,” Jensen wrote on Twitter.

 

The area, the name of which translates literally as The Meat Town, is still home to the slaughterhouses that give Kødbyen its name, but it has become an increasingly popular destination for Copenhagen’s young and hip. It is home to popular restaurants and cafes like Pate Pate, Mother and Kødbyens Fiskebar, as well as several galleries and hot nightspots including Bakken, Jolene and Mesteren & Lærlingen. 

 

Kødbyen is divided into two parts – Den Brune (the brown) Kødby and Den Hvide (the white) Kødby – and lies in the heart of Vesterbro. The buildings in Den Brune Kødby date back to around 1900, while Den Hvide Kødby came about three decades later. The area’s current popularity helped earn Vesterbro the distinction of being the fourth ‘most hipster’ neighborhood in the world. 

 

But in recent years, development in Kødbyen has been stifled by both an ammonia problem and a lacking overall local plan. 

 

Around 12 tonnes of ammonia fill pipes under Kødbyen and security concerns delayed the opening of several businesses in 2012. Large outdoor gatherings were also at one time banned in Kødbyen due to the ammonia problem. In the 2013 city budget, 43 million kroner was assigned to brining the underground ammonia system up to security standards.

 

In 2011, city officials decided that the proceeds from the sale of public grounds would go toward improvements in Kødbyen, but three years later the grounds have not been sold due to the lack of a comprehensive local plan. 

 

Jensen said the plan should be in place by 2015 and that the Kødbyen improvements should move ahead now. 

 

“We have set a side a sum of money to get started during the upcoming budget negotiations and then we can put money back into the city’s coffers after we get the grounds sold,” he told Politiken.