Last week, various media outlets reported the horrifying news that the Dutch city of Rotterdam was planning to temporarily dismantle its historic Koningshaven Bridge to allow the superyacht owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass through. Even for those outside the Netherlands unfamiliar with the bridge or its significance as a national monument there, the news carried an unavoidable symbolism: a historic piece of public infrastructure set to be maimed to make way for a gaudy billionaire pleasure vehicle owned by the world’s second richest man — a development, no less, owed to the boat’s sheer physical size relative to the bridge. The political cartoons practically draw themselves.

Rotterdam has, for what it’s worth, since appeared to walk back the plan in the face of public outcry. Summing up the spirit of the opposition, author Siebe Thissen told the New York Times:

It’s a monument. It’s the identity of Rotterdam. I think that’s why there is so much turmoil about Jeff Bezos and his boat. People say, “Why this guy?” It’s a working-class town, and they all know that Jeff Bezos, of course, he exploits his workers, so people say, “Why should this guy be able to demolish the bridge for his boat?”