Projects
What Carla worked for
Carla followed some issues for years: in committee, in the council, with motions and with questions to the executive. Each project shows what she did, with a link to the meeting or council document. Sources are in Dutch.
Governance and democracy
The Duisenberg method: a budget councillors can scrutinise
With the Duisenberg method, councillors themselves assess whether the budget and annual report are clear enough to hold the executive to account. Carla was one of the rapporteurs and made sure the recommendations were adopted.
6 · What Carla did →Everyone counts: turnout and under-represented groups
Amsterdammers with a migration background, young people and those with vocational education vote less often. Carla made sure the Ghanaian and Antillean communities in Zuidoost were included in the research into voter turnout, and kept pushing for an approach that really reaches people.
6 · What Carla did →Neighbourhood platforms and budgets: a say in your own area
Neighbourhood platforms give residents a voice in their own area. Carla argued for anchoring the right to such platforms with adequate funding, and for making neighbourhood budgets easier to access.
4 · What Carla did →AFIS: small businesses waiting too long to be paid
After the introduction of the new financial system AFIS, the city paid invoices late for months. Carla repeatedly raised the plight of the small businesses and organisations that got into trouble as a result.
4 · What Carla did →A new council chamber: the living room of democracy
From 2025 to 2026 the Amsterdam council chamber was renovated into an accessible, modern and inclusive space. From 2022 Carla was a member of the presidium, which led the renovation, and sat on the sounding board of councillors who advised on its design and furnishing. With the presidium and sounding board she visited other council chambers.
8 · What Carla did →Inclusion within the city organisation
After reports of discrimination within the city organisation, including in the Zuidoost district, Carla called for genuine culture change and for making better use of the knowledge of staff with a migration background.
4 · What Carla did →Shelter City: host to human rights defenders
Amsterdam is a Shelter City: the city hosts human rights defenders from around the world for three months, so they can rest and expand their network. As a member of the presidium, Carla received almost all of these guests on behalf of the city council from 2022 to 2026.
7 · What Carla did →Fat bike ban: safety without casting a group of young people aside
Carla opposed the fat bike ban. Not because nuisance and accidents are not a problem, but because banning one type of bike does not solve the real problem: excessive speed and tuned-up e-bikes. She doubted the ban would hold up legally, warned that it mainly affects a particular group of young people, with a risk of ethnic profiling, and argued for enforcing speed and behaviour and for an approach together with parents, schools and the neighbourhood.
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Zuidoost
Initiative proposal on tackling waste reports
In Zuidoost, Noord and Nieuw-West, overflowing bins and reports are left unresolved for too long. Together with Gijs Noordzij (PvdA), Carla wrote her own initiative proposal to make the reporting system fit how residents actually live.
5 · What Carla did →Masterplan Zuidoost: scrutiny on behalf of residents
The Masterplan Zuidoost aims to improve opportunities and quality of life in the district. Carla followed it critically from 2022: from the departure of the programme director to the audit report, always asking what residents actually notice.
7 · What Carla did →OBA Next in the K-buurt
The new library OBA Next is coming to Kraaiennest in Zuidoost. Carla had long supported that location and backed the residents and young people who campaigned for it. “When I started in this building in 2022, I fought for OBA Next in Zuidoost,” she said in 2026.
5 · What Carla did →Metro 53 and access to Zuidoost
Residents of Zuidoost have campaigned for years to keep metro line 53. Carla backed amendments to keep the current metro lines and asked what would be needed if the line were shortened after all.
3 · What Carla did →Wind turbines in Zuidoost: taking residents seriously
The Amsterdam Wind Energy Programme includes possible turbines close to residential areas in Zuidoost. Carla brought residents’ concerns about health and their living environment into the council and asked for clear information for residents.
4 · What Carla did →Erotic centre: listening to residents and sex workers
Residents and sex workers were concerned about the location of a new erotic centre, first also in Zuidoost and later in Zuid. Carla made sure their letters were discussed in the council and, at the public hearing, kept asking what would actually work.
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Education, care and housing
OBA Next in the K-buurt
The new library OBA Next is coming to Kraaiennest in Zuidoost. Carla had long supported that location and backed the residents and young people who campaigned for it. “When I started in this building in 2022, I fought for OBA Next in Zuidoost,” she said in 2026.
5 · What Carla did →Discrimination in education: showing children and parents the way
Reports, including one by the Children’s Ombudsman (“Treated differently”), show that many Amsterdam children experience discrimination at school. Carla put the report on the agenda and called for a clear route for parents, “like a metro map”.
5 · What Carla did →Free public transport for children
Free public transport gives children from low-income families more freedom to get around. Carla co-sponsored the proposals and later asked that young people up to 18 from low-income families and people below the poverty line be helped too.
6 · What Carla did →Making young carers visible
Many young people care for a parent or sibling without knowing they are carers. Carla made sure they are better informed and asked for attention to the diversity among carers.
4 · What Carla did →Mould at home: the mental toll too
Mould at home makes people ill, physically and mentally. Carla raised that often overlooked side in the council and tabled a series of proposals for a faster and more humane approach.
3 · What Carla did →Poverty: school meals and support that really reaches people
Carla kept drawing attention to children who go to school on an empty stomach and to families who cannot find their way to support. She asked how parents learn that their children can eat at school, and tabled motions to make information on poverty support and financial help clearer.
6 · What Carla did →Vaccination: information through maternity care and GPs
Not all Amsterdam children are vaccinated, and rates differ widely between neighbourhoods. Carla proposed informing parents at more moments: through GPs, with a social media campaign and, just after birth, through maternity care.
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Repair and remembrance
The National Slavery Museum
The National Slavery Museum is coming to Java-eiland. From the start of her council term Carla worked for a good outcome: she argued for adequate funding, attended the participation meeting in Zuidoost and supported the Java-eiland location in committee and council, “the result of centuries of struggle”.
6 · What Carla did →Route to Repair
Zwart Manifest’s Route to Repair report describes how Amsterdam can move forward after its apology for the slavery past. Carla pressed for the executive’s response, asked about ownership by descendants and a building for the Black community, and co-sponsored an amendment.
4 · What Carla did →Keti Koti and the presence of Speaker Bosma
In June 2024 there was outrage over the planned attendance of House Speaker Bosma at the commemoration of the slavery past. Carla spoke out in the council and on NPO Radio 1, and also asked for schools to close on Keti Koti.
6 · What Carla did →Artis and the history of human zoos
In the debate on an initiative proposal about Artis zoo, Black bodies were compared with animals. Carla responded visibly moved and asked whether Artis could exhibit the history of human zoos in Amsterdam. The proposer later apologised.
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Congo, migration and technology
Shelter City: host to human rights defenders
Amsterdam is a Shelter City: the city hosts human rights defenders from around the world for three months, so they can rest and expand their network. As a member of the presidium, Carla received almost all of these guests on behalf of the city council from 2022 to 2026.
7 · What Carla did →Congo and the energy transition
The energy transition needs minerals such as cobalt and coltan, often from conflict areas in eastern Congo. Carla organised meetings and demonstrations, spoke about it at the United Nations in New York and tabled a motion in the council: Amsterdam must not pursue its energy transition at the expense of people there.
8 · What Carla did →Refugees and undocumented people: “being human does not start with papers”
Carla worked for a dignified life for refugees, status holders and undocumented people in Amsterdam: shelter, healthcare, work and education. “No one is illegal,” she said in the council. She supported volunteer organisations such as We Are Here and Stap Verder.
9 · What Carla did →AI and digital rights: technology for everyone
From biometric surveillance to discriminatory algorithms, Carla kept asking what technology means for vulnerable groups, and for the costs elsewhere in the world. As early as 2022 she asked for an expert meeting on digital rights.
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