The councilors agree that the brothel windows of the Amsterdam red light district will be closed and an “erotic center” will be erected.
A proposal by the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, to close a significant number of windows in the narrow alleys around the docks, is supported by a broad group of political parties.
The sex workers in the De Wallen red-light district will be invited to move to a purpose-built center elsewhere in Amsterdam, the location of which has yet to be determined.
The CDA and Christian Union have long campaigned for the closure of the windows, and they are now supported by the VVD, the party of the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, as well as the Labor Party and the Greens.
“It’s about restoring Amsterdam as a visitor city,” said Dennis Boutkan, of the Dutch Labor Party. The CDA’s Diederik Boomsma said: “Tourists are welcome to enjoy the beauty and freedom of the city, but not at all costs. We must intervene firmly. ”
Halsema argued that the brothel windows should be closed, as women working in the area became a tourist attraction that attracted crackers and abusers.
When the idea was first proposed, a newly formed lobby group called Red Light United claimed that 90% of the 170 female sex workers he interviewed wanted in the windows in the narrow streets and singel streets of the Singel and De Wallen work.
One member of the group, under the pseudonym Foxxy, told the newspaper Het Parool at the time: ‘The relocation of the workplaces is not an option, because then the customers will not know where to find the sex workers. Will Halsema also occasionally arrange bus trips for them to the Western Harbor area [a district north of the city centre]? ”
However, the majority of councilors agreed that the relocation was necessary to change the type of tourists who are attracted to Amsterdam.
A second proposal to ban tourists from buying marijuana at city cafes is struggling to win support for fear it will hand over trades to street vendors.
According to Het Parool, the parties in the city’s ruling coalition – the liberal D66 party, the Greens, Labor and the Socialist party – have expressed serious doubts about the mayor’s plans.
“I fear an increase in unhealthy drug use among visitors and the impact of street trafficking on our young people,” said Alexander Hammelburg, D66.