Amsterdam is making efforts to return the city to its residents When Amsterdam installed its famed I AMSTERDAM sculpture outside the Rijksmuseum in 2004, there was no such thing as Instagram. Nearly 15 years later, we live in a different world, and the red and white sculpture has transformed from a public art piece to a frustrating symbol of the city?s thriving tourism economy.
This week, following a petition from Amsterdam city councillor Femke Roosma that claimed the sculpture was attracting mass tourism and promoting the wrong vision for the city, the letters were craned onto a truck and driven far away from the city center. The message of the dramatic removal is clear: Amsterdam does not want to be an Instagram city.
In a statement, Roosma said, ?The message of ?I amsterdam? is that we are all individuals in the city. We want to show something different: diversity, tolerance, solidarity. This slogan reduces the city to a background in a marketing story.?
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A post shared by I amsterdam (@iamsterdam) on Dec 3, 2018 at 3:00am PST

In 2018, it?s nearly impossible for cities to avoid tourists who flock to their streets on the recommendation of a social media geotag, but Amsterdam is certainly trying with proposed restrictions on Airbnb, cracking down on beer bikes, and efforts to clear out big public squares like the one where I AMSTERDAM once stood.
It?s hard to blame the residents. Many complain that the...