Filter Café Filtré and Brussels schools campaign on-going for a sports capital | Brussels

The starting shot for the run was given by former chief athlete Kim Gevert. Then, dozens of Brussels students took to the streets for a sports experience, under the supervision of choreographer Benjamin Vandwall. With this promotion, the organizers want to demonstrate that there is enough space in the city center for more sports infrastructure.

“A lot of times we still see Brussels residents driving to a gym or fitness center, because there aren’t enough facilities in the city center,” says Annekatrien Verdickt of filter Café Filtré. “Now that a new distribution plan is on the way, we don’t want terraces or tourist opportunities to immediately occupy the empty space.”

For this, Verdickt refers to a traffic plan from the 1950s, which was actually intended to make downtown more car-friendly. To this day, traces of this can still be found, such as the wider passages. You can cut those streets in half. Half can be relaxed, with room for greenery and exercise equipment. And in the other half you can leave room for local traffic and public transportation.”

After the race, the vision was handed over to relevant policy makers, including the Minister of Mobility in Brussels, Elk van den Brandt (Green), and the Minister of Urban Planning and Public Affairs in Brussels, Anas Persons (Brussels).