Good-Bye to that Prostitute in the Window!

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Hello Summer!
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Nov 1, 2005
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Better get to Amsterdam quick! 700 years of proud history is about to be turned into shops and housing!
Amsterdam to cut back on brothels

The 700-year-old red light district is a big tourist attraction. The Dutch city of Amsterdam is to close one-third of the brothels in its famous red light district. The city has reached a 25m euro (£18m) deal to buy many of the premises and turn them into shops or housing. The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, said that although prostitution was legal in the Netherlands, there was too much of the sex trade in the city centre. He also said that the trade involved exploitation and trafficking of women, and other kinds of criminal activity.

Prostitutes in Amsterdam's red light district ply their trade in street windows and the area's seediness has always been part of its attraction for tourists. The Wallen, as the area is known in Dutch, is in one of the oldest and most picturesque areas of Amsterdam.

But the city's authorities say the windows are a magnet for crime and money laundering.

Mr Cohen said the move was not intended to get rid of prostitution entirely, since it is part of the area's history. "What we do want is to get rid of the underlying criminality," he said. "We believe that less windows means more exploitation of women."

However, the plan was criticised by the Dutch sex workers' union De Rode Draad. "We believe that less windows means more exploitation of women," spokeswoman Metje Blaak told the Agence France-Presse news agency. "If the windows close down, women who are being exploited will be hidden somewhere else where union representatives and health workers can't make contact with them," she said.

Prostitutes hire the windows for around 100 euros for part of the day. One window is usually used by several prostitutes a day.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/243160/0_61_113006_amsterdam.jpg

Shakes head. This is a sad, sad day for us all....I ask you, what goes next? The windmills? The canals? :(
 
I don't know. It might be a good thing. With so many prostitutes being forced out, they'll have to compete with one another to prove who gets to stay. That can only mean that the really good hookers will remain.

And boy, will they be busy. :p
 
slyc_willie said:
I don't know. It might be a good thing. With so many prostitutes being forced out, they'll have to compete with one another to prove who gets to stay. That can only mean that the really good hookers will remain.

And boy, will they be busy. :p

I say let Capitalism prevail. If the prostitutes pay higher rents than a business that would replace them, then let them stay. Let them open more windows if that is what the market will bear.

About the exploitation, I wonder who judges whether someone is being exploited? If you ask some people, any woman who works as a prostitute is being exploited. Other people might be more lenient.
 
I'm still wondering how they do money laundering in the prostitutes' windows. :confused:
 
I can see it now. Amsterdam without prostitues plying their trade in windows. That would be like Las Vegas closing all their casinos.

Adios, El Tourista. :rolleyes:
 
Jenny_Jackson said:
I can see it now. Amsterdam without prostitues plying their trade in windows. That would be like Las Vegas closing all their casinos.

Adios, El Tourista. :rolleyes:

Nah, more like the MGM Grand going up in flames . . . .

But there's still the Excalibur and Ceasar's Palace ;)
 
The Dutch have had crazy ideas like that before. I'm not overly worried, because at the end of the day common sense prevails.

A while back some bright spark decided that the 'wrong kind' of tourists were coming to Amsterdam. Solution? Ban foreigners from coffee shops, so that only Dutch nationals were permitted to buy weed.

Then some even brighter spark decided that Amsterdam shouldn't be famous for weed at all, and suggested bringing in a ban on smoking in public places... which would have been the end of the coffee shop culture.

But it never happened.

I think the Dutch are slightly uneasy with their reputation as the sex and drug capital of Europe. But at the end of the day it's what brings in the tourists, and deep down they realise that.

Sure, there are some parts of the Red Light District that are dodgy as fuck. But cleaning them up and turning them into posh residential areas is just going to push the crime and money-laundering into the more commercial areas.
 
I love Amsterdam. I am lucky to be able to go there 3 or 4 times a year. Of course.. it is only for the great museums, the endless canals, the pedestrian and bicycle ownership of the streets.. and the coffee houses.

But never mind the great dope, it is that Amsterdam even exists as a symbol for personal freedom (behaviorally speaking) that makes it so special.

I vividly remember the first evening many years ago when my wife and I ventured into the Red Light district feeling a little risqué and turned on. Now I have seen women in filmy lingerie before, but I almost jumped out of my skin when I suddenly noticed there was the girl sitting in a purple lit window not more than 3 feet away from me.

I would not call the experience erotic. I was more than a little embarrassed and not sure what the proper social decorum should be in these situations. Is staring permitted? Should I acknowledge her? My wife solved that dilemma by dragging me away.... Even after all these years... I still find it strange and more than a little humorous.

But I would hate to see it go away...... it is certainly a part of the Amsterdam panache......

As observed above... I trust when the smoke clears, so to speak, cooler heads will prevail. And there are no more cooler heads anywhere than those in Amsterdam.

KC
 
Pushing it into the shadows won't make the problem any better. I feel the same way about prostitution in this country (United States). By keeping it illegal your not protecting women and your not preventing diease. You regulate, tax, and monitor the situation. I hope the city of Amsterdam which is lovely btw attacks the problem the right way, because you don't need brothels to launder money and exploit foreign women. We manage just fine here in here....lol

Seriously though I wouldn't worry. I worked with some men and women from Holland years again...they said you barely notice it all. One man growing up has fond memories of waving to girls in the windows on the way to school. They simply waved and didn't do anything rude.
 
Jenny_Jackson said:
I can see it now. Amsterdam without prostitues plying their trade in windows. That would be like Las Vegas closing all their casinos.

Adios, El Tourista. :rolleyes:
Well, there's still the cannabis...
 
BlackShanglan said:
Well, at least the doggy will have a little more room. How much for that?

Actually, I was singing about the redhead with the waggily tail...
 
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