(The Hague) Amsterdam officials on Monday agreed the location of a controversial “erotic center” project – intended to replace 100 windows of the famous Red Light – on a boulevard bordering a business district in the Dutch capital and close to residential areas.
Europaboulevard, in the south of the city, “is the most suitable location for the new erotic center”, decided the municipal executive. “This choice will be submitted to the municipal council” at the beginning of 2024, he said in a press release.
The project is justified by a need to reduce nuisance and crime linked to mass tourism and revelers in the famous Red Light.
But since its beginnings it has sparked an outcry from sex workers, who want to stay behind their scarlet neon windows near the canals of the historic center.
Residents living near three locations pre-selected in February in the north and south of the city have joined the sex workers’ protests in recent months, against the prospect of a “huge brothel” being erected two not from home.
Petitions opposing the project have gathered tens of thousands of signatures. The row has even involved the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is strongly opposed to the fact that two of the proposed sites are near its headquarters south of Amsterdam.
The selected location was ultimately 800 meters from the headquarters of the European regulator.
“Finding a location for an erotic center is a particularly difficult task in an increasingly dense city,” conceded the Dutch capital.
“Each location […] raises discussions, questions about displacement and concerns about quality of life,” she added.
The chosen location is next to a highway and is easily accessible, the municipality explained. A “wide road” separates it from residential areas, she explained.
“We are creating around a hundred places for sex workers outside the city center. And let’s close the same number of workplaces in the Red Light,” Amsterdam said.
Even if the project is approved, the full development of the plans will still require a certain number of formal decisions, specified the municipality, which takes into account a period of seven years for the realization of the erotic center.