Janek Mäggi recently argued in an opinion piece that Tallinn's Old Town should be torn down because it's only inhabited by rats.

He cited Amsterdam as an example of a better and more vibrant historic center, which he said "can take all the money a tourist has" while Tallinn is dead and has nothing to offer even visitors "who want to part with their money."

Believe it or not, but I actually agree in part with Mäggi. Amsterdam's Old City Center is indeed a livelier and more diverse place. But I disagree that the main issue Tallinn's Old Town faces lies in its old buildings or poor access by car.

In Amsterdam's Old City Center, incredibly narrow old houses with steep staircases rise up directly from the canals, eliminating canalside car access altogether, and both goods and waste must be transported in and out by boat or cargo bike.

And yet life goes on, and everything seems to be working. Why, then, does Amsterdam's old center differ so much from Tallinn's?

Because Amsterdam's city government has long since been pushing back, and increasingly forcefully, against overtourism and working to balance the old center's tourism-driven development.

City policy pulls no punches

Amsterdam's tourism policy aims to protect residents' quality of life by limiting the negative impacts of tourism and managing visitor numbers.

In characteristically direct Dutch fashion, it states: " We want to get rid of commercial parties that use the already scarce public space in the city center to make money from cheap tourist entertainment, the kind of entertainment that completely ignores the interests of the people living or working in Amsterdam. That type of entrepreneurship undermines our underlying values and our idea of what freedom really is. We invite the tourists that are drawn to these kinds of experiences to go and look for them elsewhere."

As a result, the city is no longer allowing new tourist shops, hotels or tourist attractions. Some hotels are even being shut down to create more housing and office space. Short-term apartment rentals are regulated and taxed, and Airbnb properties must meet the same requirements as other accommodation providers.

The city takes an active role in managing commercial spaces, favoring local businesses that contribute to neighborhood development.

It also directly manages affordable rental housing for residents and even intervenes in the private rental market by restricting the purchase of homes as investment properties; anyone buying an apartment in Amsterdam must live there personally for at least four years, during which they cannot rent it out.

Visits by large tourist groups are being staggered and their access to the city center limited, and the city is even weighing closing its central cruise ship terminal. In some areas, bars and clubs are required to close earlier to respect local residents' quiet hours.

From ghost town to downtown

If we want Tallinn's Old Town to thrive as a true urban center again too, then it's high time to hit the brakes on its touristification. But where do we even begin?

The most important thing to remember is that, just like with traffic jams, the answer to overtourism isn't increasing infrastructure capacity, even if that seems like the obvious solution. Bigger bus parking lots and more cruise ship quays on the edge of the Old Town would only deepen existing problems.

In a car-dependent city, sooner or later there needs to be a shift toward alternative forms of mobility. In touristified neighborhoods, the focus needs to be on supporting different uses of space — in other words, on how to maintain a permanent population of local residents and workplaces in the Old Town.

First, city and state institutions need to remain in the Old Town, including schools, ministries, state agencies and cultural institutions. They bring local people into the area year-round, who in turn become potential customers for cafes and other businesses.

Second, the city should introduce selection criteria for renting out municipally owned spaces, prioritizing businesses and organizations that serve local residents. Yes, this constitutes limiting the free market, but many of the great European old towns we love to visit already do exactly that. It's what is necessary to keep big multinational corporations from displacing local businesses and erasing what makes the city unique.

Third, the spread of short-term rentals must be curbed so residential buildings can return to serving as homes, not hotels.

More ideas for maintaining Tallinn's Old Town as a diverse, multifunctional urban space can be found in our book "The Old Town: Heritage, Living Environment and Tourism."

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