The mayor of Amsterdam has come under fire from neighborhood residents over a divisive proposal to relocate legal prostitution from the city’s famed red-light district to a suburban “adult center.”
Hundreds of irate neighbors who opposed a “mega-brothel” on their doorstep found themselves siding with sex workers who desired to remain in their red neon booths at a meeting hall south of the city. Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, is caught in the middle and is adhering to a plan that not many seem to support despite being called a “brothel madame” by opponents.
To close down the current red-light area, which is the subject of accusations of crime, intoxication, and drug misuse, Halsema has suggested three places for a 100-room erotic center in the south of the city.
t will probably be several years before a new “erotic center” is built, and the city administration wants to decide on the location by the end of the year.
Local residents have confronted the mayor of Amsterdam over a controversial plan to move legal prostitution from the city’s historic red-light district to a suburban “adult centre”. AFP via Getty Images In March, dozens of protesters with markers and banners reading “Save the Red Light” confronted the mayor at City Hall, explaining the plan for “Project 1012 2.0.” AFP via Getty Images
And Halsema has come to terms with the fact that “no matter what solution we choose, there will always be protests, there will always be resistance.”
In March, dozens of protesters with markers and banners reading “Save the Red Light” confronted the mayor at City Hall, saying the plan for “Project 1012 2.0” – a reference to the borough’s area code – was unsafe and harmful to theirs Existence.
The mayor has also been accused of harming the Netherlands by crowding out companies.
The European Medicines Agency has been drawn into the fray, opposing the fact that two of the proposed new sites are close to its new headquarters – where it has moved after Brexit.
But according to AFP, Halsema insists they “know which city they are based in”.
