A mid-March Lennard Roubos morning he woke to find his neighborhood transformed. For the better part of a decade road Roubos’, in front of the red light district in the center of Amsterdam it is full of tourists. Drawn to the range of coffee shops where you can free marijuana and sex workers, the world-renowned clients in the window brothels City can smoke solicit, screaming tourists, drink, urinate and sometimes medication management at the stationed retailers near his first floor apartment, Roubos says. All this held on March 15, it introduced the lockdown Dutch measures to prevent the spread of the new platform at the crown, except for tourists to enter, closing bars and cafés, and approximately 330 brothel window formwork city. The streets were deserted surprisingly, Roubos says. “It ‘was really an eye opener to see how the situation at hand had gotten.” For the sex industry in the region, and other local businesses that live from tourism, short-term effects of hard lockdown. national governmental regulations prevent sex workers from 1 September in the job back as soon as possible, as in other workplaces, including bars, hairdressers and massage parlors, reopen to leave commercial sex workers and brothel windows operators in serious financial difficulties. And while a trickle of European visitors are back now allowed many of the cafes, souvenir shops and restaurants that rely on over 1 million tourists visiting in a normal month, the risk can not survive in the situation. The revolution can change the red light district for good. Residents with tourism groups have been encouraged enough by the sight of its quiet streets for the first time, says Roubos. They are also angry at how little they have to offer services local people of the area and are now the pressure on the city to avoid a return to normality. A petition calling for the city to limit the number of visitors and to act quickly the area has to change quickly collected about 30,000 threshold when signing required to hold a referendum on the proposals. In a letter to the city council at the end of May, the mayor Femke Halsema wrote that the blockade had stressed “the urgent need to think of the center of the city of the future.” While previous efforts to revise the area have failed, the slowdown of the pandemic is a unique opportunity for tourism officials, he wrote, to consider measures to buy empty properties and limiting the safety failed tour companies allowed d ‘Affairs replaced with a “different” does not mix, catering for locals. To reduce tourism and over-population before the pandemic, considering options Halsema limit sex work and possibly completely disengage the surface. Now she has written preparations for a “prostitution Hotel” elsewhere in Amsterdam, sex workers can replace the red light district, are “in full swing.” sex workers, long the city administration’s hostility, their presence has accused the center now say they take their last breath to stifle them the benefits of the pandemic in their industry. “You are, this situation to celebrate and are waiting only for business owners who take the [Puff] window to go bankrupt,” says Jane, a worker’s sex and member of the Red prostitution district information center in lights like other sex workers interviewed for this story, using a pseudonym to protect his identity. “They smoke out.” The red light district, called “De Wallen” (The walls, in Dutch), because of its location near the old city walls, sex work has hosted for centuries, brothels and windows have been obvious at least since 1960. But the current problems of the region began only in 2013. the combination of an aggressive marketing campaign the city and the flourishing of budget airlines in Europe has led to an explosion of the Amsterdam visitor. Curious sex work, which was since 2000 in the Netherlands legally and which was decriminalized in 1970, hemp and smoking in cafes, most tourists flock to the red light district. The area of narrow streets have struggled to cope with the influx, while tourist shops and restaurants that serve burgers and cakes originated in startling figures on its medieval buildings. The current local government has then use the argument regarding local problems for a long time, says Masha ten Bruggencate, president of the Center City District. The pandemic has a “catalyst” for change are. “We had already worked this thread tried for two years to start,” he says. “But then suddenly Sunday evening, the principal told the minister that all the bars and restaurants had to close and within 20 minutes it was quiet.” For residents against noise pollution in recent years complained, was too silent running, Roubos says, and people feel safe at first, with no people on the streets. “But most people have gradually developed a feeling that we have recovered our area.” People used to clean vomit in their streets, or push through the crowd if they want to leave the house, now feel the cleaning roads on foot or canned cycle, and neighbors are out for a distanced drink with added Roubos. Amsterdammers to generally avoid the center of the city from other parts of the city, is visited. Now that the lock opened on June 1, to facilitate sharing with restaurants and bars, as long as customers can maintain a distance of 1.5 m Residents looking like their neighborhood to keep livable in the future. For many, this means that prostitutes, attracting many to go to the area needs. “I personally have nothing against staying a few windows [brothels] in the field,” said Roubos. “But I think that most of the inhabitants of the red light district, especially those who live in the heart of it are so sick that say we close completely.” It is not yet clear whether the sex hotel or “erotic center” outside the city center, the mayor is planning an addition to the red light district is that if some windows are closed, or when the whole sex work in end of the field. The City Council is to decide by the end of the year. “We are very proud that we are a liberal city, where people can work in the sex industry,” says Bruggencate. “On the other hand, we do not want the sex industry to be a tourist attraction. So we try to push more towards a mixed city.” Whatever the decision of the City, the financial impact of COVID-19 will Lockdown difficult to recover for the sex industry. Window workers, unlike workers in certain types of brothels closed in financial assistance can access the Dutch government. But it is not enough to cover the expensive life in the Dutch capital, says Felicia Anna, a Romanian sex worker to represent 2019 Printing Group founded Red Light workers United windows. Without income and without the possibility of three summer months for the job, the supporters sex workers say many migrants who dominate the red light area, were countries of origin in eastern Europe forced to turn or move elsewhere or not illegal regulated forms sex work. Sex Theater, where the erotic shows visitors to see, say they will fight customers to 1.5 meters to meet, even if they have the right to reopen. Brothels windows that have their buildings from property owners in danger of bankruptcy from the letting of their windows without renting income. Jane, PIC, estimated half of the brothel windows would shut down if unable to generate revenue through the summer. The dozens of coffee shops that have been sitting in and around the Red Light District to close during the closure for weed dispensaries can stay open plan prompted warnings that drug dealers moved. But the owners reported revenue overhangs due to lack of foreign tourists. This can become a permanent obstacle to their business because the support of Halsema between the council is trying to buy foreign visitors seaweed bars in coffee shops, according to a survey commissioned found more than a third of tourists would visit the city less often if this legislation was in place. The collapse of society-such as bars, restaurants, souvenir shops, cafes and brothels-it would be an “opportunity,” says Bruggencate to encourage public hosts authorities, companies rent, the locals, as grocery stores offer restaurants and less touristy. City prohibits zoning already opening new tourist shops and the local government says Bruggencate considering “whether to push really the most options, according to the law to normal shops and normal bars.” Not everyone agrees that the area needs to be changed. Companies in the city center and the owners of buildings where previously filed against the local government about its policy of limiting tourist-serving businesses and deposited accused of discrimination, E.U. violated laws on services and property values caused to fall. In April, a Dutch court rejected a complaint filed by businesses, including a chain of stores-cheese ban on new tourist shops. sex workers giving no hope that they can return to work earlier than in September. Pressure group Red Light States sent a proposal in May for the national government a strict hygiene protocol would begin sex work now re-laying afford. It includes measures such as mandatory use of masks, and the suspension of oral sex. Kisses, Felicia points out was not part of the job before the pandemic. Felicia says he is convinced the authorities that sex work is impossible during the pandemic reveals sure to make a lack of understanding about the nature of work. “They keep saying, ‘Oh, you sweat, and is very closely’ No, not really.” She says, adding that an average stay of customers within a sex worker room for only six or seven minutes. “It is not really sweat. It ‘s all very professionally done. We do not offer the girlfriend experience.” She did not have an answer on its proposal of the government, he says Jane says it is unfair that massage parlors before it can open. Brothels were initially to open at the same time, such as gyms and casinos, but the national government decided to allow these spaces, from July 1 to open so that sex work in September. “They act like we’re unable to provide our customers with a screening or a hygiene protocol when it is always [work],” he says. “Coronavirus is not a sexually transmitted disease. How did we go even more dangerous than a haircut?” (Infectious disease experts say that is to say too soon though the spread of the virus could have sex.) Bruggencate say the city government no national government can change the rules prohibits September 1 sex work. It is emphasized that brothel owners are entitled to require the financial support of the city like other companies. While the red light district roads remain calm, the debate on the future of the region is getting stronger. Bruggencate provides a great period of change in the next month, as the city is creaking back to life and residents, commercial sex workers and tourists fighting for their place there. “Now it is the time to see what steps we must take to keep the balance of the city.” Image copyright Robin Utrecht-SOPA Images / Sipa
Why Red Light District of Amsterdam could not survive the pandemic Crown
