Amsterdam to name street after popular mayor Eberhard van der Laan

A street or another location in Amsterdam will be named after the city's former mayor, Eberhard van der Laan. The city council is working with his family to find a suitable place in the city, said Mayor Femke Halsema at the start of the Amsterdam city council meeting on Wednesday. "The [mayor and aldermen] want the memory of Eberhard van der Laan to be handed down to future generations."

Van der Laan died exactly five years ago, after serving as mayor for almost seven years. Halsema did not want that to go unnoticed, she said. "He was the figurehead of the ideal of an undivided, growing, confident city. In his own words, 'A responsible capital.' Or, but really only Eberhard could say that, 'A sweet city.'"

The very popular Van der Laan was an avid smoker and fanatical Ajax fan. He died of lung cancer at the age of 62 and had remained in office almost to his dying day. Thousands of Amsterdammers said goodbye to him when he lay in state in the Concertgebouw.

After his death an Amsterdam cookie was named after him, the Eberhardje. There is also an eight-meter tall painting of Van der Laan wearing an Ajax scarf on a building on Mercatorplein in Amsterdam-West. The artwork is called Damsko Strijder, and was created by street art collective Kamp Seedorf.

A small bronze Van der Laan with the necklace of his office, sculpted by artist Streetart Frankey, has been sitting on a ledge in the facade of music venue Paradiso for a few years now.