A plan to relocate many of the area's sex workers to a purpose-built 'Erotic Center' on the outskirts of Amsterdam has caused a backlash
t is 11 a.m. on a weekday in late June in Amsterdam’s De Wallen district, and a clean-up operation is underway. Street sweeping machines are collecting trash that hints at a raucous time the night before: cigarette packs, spliff butts, and empty cannabis baggies litter the narrow alleyways. City workers armed with hoses and brushes scrub at graffiti, navigating past windows draped with red curtains where sex workers are starting their early shifts.
Sex workers and sympathizers take part in a demonstration to protest plans to shutter the city's historic red light district, to be moved to a new erotic centre, in Amsterdam on March 30.Faced with ever-increasing numbers of tourists and unruly behavior in the Red Light District, Mayor Femke Halsema has embarked on new measures to reduce the number of visitors.
Representatives from the three proposed sites for the new Erotic Center in the north and south of Amsterdam are also unhappy, arguing that the facility could bring unruly behavior to their neighborhoods, and combative consultations between the city and local groups are ongoing. While financial backers have not yet been found for the center, a final decision on the location is expected in December.
Cito’s conceptual plan incorporates this idea into a series of swirling, interlinked structures on a ground floor offering space for sex shops, theaters, restaurants, and bars. Two curvaceous and interlinked towers then rise, where potential clients could browse a similar window-style set-up as in the Red Light District. There is also space for social work and medical assistance.
Imane Nadif, a city councilor with the same GroenLinks party as Halsema, pins part of the backlash on the difficulty of balancing various interests. “I don’t think you will ever meet everyone’s expectations,” she tells TIME from City Hall. “But you have to look at the bigger picture. How do you make the city livable for everyone?”
But people differ on how to tackle this problem. Many measures have been put in place in the last few years to try to curb the number of tourists. There are restrictions on when and where a resident can rent out their home on Airbnb, and a ban on new hotel permits in some areas. The sale and public consumption of alcohol in the Red Light District is subject to various restrictions, and in May smoking marijuana in public was banned in parts of De Wallen.
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