The Copenhagen I Grew Up In and the Copenhagen That Exists Now

When I was a child, Vesterbro was the neighbourhood parents warned you about. The Kødbyen was an actual meatpacking district. The canal front at Christianshavn was industrial. The harbour was not swimmable.

All of these things have changed. The harbour water quality improvement programme started in the 1990s and is one of the genuine civic achievements of the past thirty years — you can now swim in the harbour in the centre of a capital city, which almost no other European capital can say. The Havnebad at Islands Brygge opened in 2003 and is still the best argument for what urban investment can produce when it is done for residents rather than visitors.

The Copenhagen I grew up in was rougher and cheaper and less internationally recognised than the one that exists now. I do not think it was better. I think it was different in ways that had value that the current version lacks, and the current version has value that the old one lacked. The people who only know the current version are missing context. The people who only remember the old one are being sentimental.

The honest position is that this is a good city that has become expensive in the process of becoming better in measurable ways, and that the cost of that improvement has not been paid equally. Knowing both things is the minimum required for living here honestly.