Interview
Amsterdam's
Green mayor looks to reform red-light district
Daniel
Boffey in Amsterdam
As an MP,
Femke Halsema helped make prostitution legal in the Netherlands. So why does
she now want to overhaul an area where sex workers famously ply their trade?
Daniel
Boffey
Thu 16 Jan
2020 05.00 GMTLast modified on Thu 16 Jan 2020 10.14 GMT
The local
football team, Ajax, had just won the championship, and as is traditional, the
mayor of Amsterdam expected some abuse at the victory parade. “It is a Dutch
tradition – it is usually just screaming and throwing cans of beer,”said Femke
Halsema, the first woman to take the highest office in the Dutch capital.
Halsema,
53, a former leader of the national Green party, though, faced a difference
grade of barracking: shouts of “bitch” and “whore”, and a wall of middle
fingers. “It was a moment when I was confronted by being a woman,” she said,
laughing. “I think the last mayor wasn’t called a bitch.”
If
Halsema’s appointment by the left-led city council 18 months ago has
discomfited some, it has not stood in the way of her quietly radical agenda,
based on a philosophy that the longstanding Dutch tradition of tolerance could
not mean turning a blind eye to the more pernicious consequences of letting the
market rip.
A central
target of her reforms is Amsterdam’s infamous red-light district, the narrow
streets that run around the city’s docks, where Dutch tolerance now risks
looking more like indifference. “As Janis Joplin said, ‘Freedom is just another
word for nothing left to lose’,” Halsema said. “Well, that’s not the way we are
going.”
In recent
months the mayor has asked the city’s inhabitants to at least allow themselves
to consider the red-light district’s closure as the most radical option of a
bundle of possible reforms. At the same time, she has defended her “edgy city”
and the window brothels, insisting she will not make a “taboo of sexuality … or
of a woman’s body”.
It is part
of a wider agenda seeking to distinguish between a laissez-faire approach and
the notion of tolerating difference that includes plans to work with companies
in the hope of opening the eyes of the Dutch middle classes to the consequences
of their cocaine use, having admitted herself to once giving it a try.
“They should
know or realise that the young boy who comes and brings their pizza and their
cocaine is in danger of getting into a drug environment that is very dangerous
to him, that could get him killed,” she said. “I used it once – I grew up in
the east of Holland and there was not much to do except smoke cannabis.”
Red light
district sex worker
Halsema is
also casting around for lessons from other cities to help solve some of
Amsterdam’s most pressing problems: Barcelona on dealing with the potentially
fracturing impact of tourism on neighbourhoods; New York’s Brooklyn on
gentrification; and, after a tip from London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, during a
visit to the UK, she has introduced a programme that has achieved success in
Glasgow and Chicago in discouraging young men and women from being drawn into
the grip of drug traffickers.
But perhaps
her initiative for the red-light district in Amsterdam best encapsulates her
approach to dealing with the vastly changing nature of her city, where the
population and economy is booming, in part due to Brexit relocations, but where
seediness and criminality have also taken an unhealthy hold.
Speaking in
her City Hall office, Halsema said: “I am a progressive, a liberal. When I was
a member of parliament ages ago, I was partly responsible for acknowledging
prostitution as a legal profession in Holland.
“And I am still in favour of accepting
prostitution as a legal profession because I think the only way we can go to
emancipate sex workers is to acknowledge that it is a market, there is supply
and demand. But the red-light district has a sentimental flavour around it from
the past – the idea of a sailor coming in and strong Dutch women telling him
what he wants and doesn’t want.
“But if you look at the actual situation in
the red-light district, most women working there are foreign, in a very
vulnerable legal status. And we do not know much about their backgrounds,” said
Halsema.
“The other
big change is tourism. It is no longer an intimate district. If you walk
through the very narrow streets, you see huge crowds of tourists standing in
front of the windows photographing foreign women who are vulnerable and
laughing at them.
“As a
woman, I cannot accept this kind of humiliation of women. I cannot accept it.
It is against all women’s rights and against the idea that we want to empower
sex workers.”
The options
include increasing the size of the district to deal with the overcrowding, to
relocate some of the sex workers to a sex hotel, or to bring in turnstiles to
force payment from those who want to walk on certain streets. As for closing
the area down, she said: “I don’t think it is very realistic as it is also a
very profitable district, so it would be very expensive to do that.”
What she
says is “non-negotiable” is that the women’s situation must be bettered, that
those who live around the area are disturbed less and that criminality is not
given an easy ride.
“We call it
brancheren – interfering with the economic branches of the city,” said Halsema.
“In the last five or six years, the inner city has become an economic zone,
while it is also cultural heritage. We need to rethink the main cultural
significance of our inner city and what it means for the people who live in
Amsterdam and Holland. We need to have the guts to interfere in the economic
structures of the city. I think we are in time.”
‘Now, 17
million visitors a year stay in Amsterdam, many keen to ogle women in red-lit
windows, party, and turn the centre into what has been called an ‘urban
jungle’.’ Visitors to Amsterdam’s red-light district. Photograph: Naomi
O'Leary/The Observer
Boorish sex
tourists are ruining Amsterdam. It’s time to ship them out
Senay
Boztas
Any charm
the city’s red-light district once had has been trampled by a flood of leering
visitors. But change is coming
Fri 5 Jul
2019 15.20 BSTLast modified on Fri 5 Jul 2019 17.39 BST
As I
battled a pushchair across the unhelpful Amsterdam cobbles, three young
Englishmen approached. “Where’s the red-light district?” they asked this
bleary-eyed, breastfeeding mother. I thought about directing them straight into
a cold canal, but politely waved in the direction of what the Dutch call De
Wallen.
A decade
ago, I had no idea that they were the first drips in a flood of tourists. Now,
17 million visitors a year stay in Amsterdam, many keen to ogle women in
red-lit brothel windows, party, and turn the centre into what city ombudsman
Arre Zuurmond has called an “urban jungle”.
In some
ways, it’s nothing new. Since the early days of seafaring, sailors have been
stopping off in the port of Amsterdam to avail themselves of the remunerated
charms of its women – as witnessed by the jaunty 17th-century sea shanty The
Maid of Amsterdam, in which a man pledges to “go no more a-rovin’” with a
red-lipped dame who has been his “ruin”.
Roll
forward a few centuries, though, and there’s a widespread feeling that the sex
district – or rather the visitors it attracts – is proving the ruin of
Amsterdam. This week, after months of hinting at action, Amsterdam’s first
female mayor, Femke Halsema, has revealed four potential futures for the famous
prostitution windows, including shutting all 330 of them and moving the sex district
elsewhere – possibly to a “sex work hotel”. Keeping the status quo, for the
city council and many of its residents, is not an option.
Living in a
city where your normal (cycle) path might take you past women selling
themselves in windows is an odd thing. Suddenly, there’s something terribly
interesting on the other side of the street to point out to the children
(alongside a resolution to take the long route next time). On the bright side,
the sex workers generally look bored and grumpy rather than X-rated, and the
Victoria’s Secret billboards at Schiphol airport are probably more revealing.
Yesterday
evening, pedalling through the medieval district, the narrow, thronging streets
felt a bit like the start of a college ball. Window brothels lining the
Oudezijds Achterburgwal were either empty or the red curtains were pulled shut.
But there were also signs that the city was watching: a few police on
horseback, a huddle of city wardens reminding tourists to “enjoy and respect”
Amsterdam, and adverts informing miscreants that street drinking or peeing risk
a fine of up to €140 (£125).
The
atmosphere isn’t what you’d call homely, but normal life in Amsterdam doesn’t
bring you into contact with sex workers unless you look them up. It’s a
different story with those tourists who throng in front of the windows, leering
without buying, eating cheap food on residents’ front steps, spilling over the
city and generally being an obnoxious nuisance. It’s obvious that something
needs to change to let this group know that they are not welcome.
The Dutch
approach to prostitution is largely practical: sex work will always exist, so
better for everyone to legalise, control and tax it. Sex workers are registered
with the chamber of commerce and the city council – and must have health
insurance and regular checks. This makes a lot of sense to a feminist, and
Foxxy Angel, of the Proud Dutch union for sex workers, says the window
structure gives them safety and security – as well as the chance to look a
client in the eye before saying yes and opening the door.
But the
council has so far failed to clean up the problematic aspects of the red-light
district – fraud, money laundering and human trafficking. In 2007 the city
started Project 1012 to address widespread criminality: however, analysis by
the city audit office last year found that while 112 windows and 48 coffeeshops
– where cannabis is smoked – were closed, the project did not succeed in
breaking down criminal infrastructure or bring in any economic upswing. From
2005 to 2016, the report said, there were at least 119 victims of human
trafficking.
My Red
Light, a project that invited sex workers to run their own brothel in
city-owned premises, has had mixed results too, with financial difficulties,
concerns about human trafficking and complaints from sex workers about
heavy-handed enforcement.
Some people
feel brothels are part of the charm of the beautiful De Wallen, but it seems
obvious that in an internet age where a screen is as good an advertising space
as a window, they could easily be located elsewhere. Angel tells me that many
sex workers who visit the Proud office in the red-light district are concerned
about the future but admit that a sex hotel-type structure could offer the same
kinds of protections. Lyle Muns, spokesman for My Red Light, says sex workers
certainly need a good alternative if the walls go up in De Wallen.
Finding
another location would be a problem in a city with a massive space and housing
shortage, but even talking about moving prostitution from the red-light
district is a good thing. If it flashes up a big, red “stop” sign for those
thoughtless, boorish tourists, or diverts them somewhere else, many
Amsterdammers will feel a profound sense of relief.
• Senay
Boztas is an Amsterdam-based journalist who writes on Europe, particularly the
Netherlands and Belgium
Amsterdam
delays flat share rule changes,
Rotterdam also to take steps
Housing December
20, 2019
Amsterdam
city council has given landlords until April 1 to apply for licences to rent
properties to groups of young adults. Two of the ruling parties – D66 and
GroenLinks – proposed the extension after housing corporations, landlords and
student organisations warned that the new rules will be disastrous for
flat-sharing. The rest of the new rules, such as quotas for bed and breakfast
accommodation, will come into effect on January 1 as planned. From April 1,
landlords will have to have a licence if they want to rent a property to three
or more adults who are not related, and will also have to give each tenant an
individual contract. Tenants will be able to apply to the rent tribunal to have
their payments cut. Rotterdam too is considering introducing tough rules to
cover flat sharing. Earlier this week, councillors voted in favour of a motion calling
for measures to combat flat-sharing and buy-to-let constructions.
Buying a
new property to let? In Amsterdam you’ll face rent controls
Housing
January 15, 2020
Amsterdam
council is to ban people who buy a newly built home within the city boundaries
for renting it out for more than €1,027 per month. The city has published new
draft bylaws which, officials hope, will help stop investors buying up homes to
rent them out. The ban will also apply to subsequent buyers. The new rules,
which have now been put out to consultation, will only apply to new properties.
Buyers will be able to rent the flat or house to their immediate family members
and during a temporary stay abroad. ‘It will also remain an option to rent out
a home as a mid-market or social housing, with a rent of up to €1,027 per month,’
the city said in a press release. Figures published last year by the Dutch
central bank show that one in five properties in the capital is bought by an
investor, but it is unclear what proportion of new homes end up being rented
out. ‘The private rental market is growing enormously,’ housing alderman
Laurens Ivens said. ‘We want to give all potential buyers a chance.’ Court
Laurens said the measure is a far-reaching one but that it will stand up in
court. Efforts to stop people who buy older properties from renting them out
would require national legislation. Ivens has also introduced tough rules
covering flat-sharing in an effort to stimulate landlords into renting their
properties to families and low income households. Four in five private landlords
in the Netherlands rent out just one property and see the income as a
supplement to their pension, the national statistics office CBS said last year.
Some 12% of property in the capital is owned by private landlords, a large
proportion of which is social housing.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário