After the crowds in the area around the Red Light District and the Nieuwmarkt during the Easter weekend were just as great as before the corona crisis, announced Mayor Halsema yesterday introduced a number of new measures to limit nuisance in the area. The first measures will come into effect next Friday: the ban on the sale of alcohol will be tightened and the expansion of terraces must be reversed. Many local residents react enthusiastically, but entrepreneurs are not happy with it: “This is damage to Amsterdam’s culture.”
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“Once again, the rapidly increasing numbers of visitors, and the nuisance this entails, puts unacceptable pressure on public space and the quality of life in the Red Light District,” the mayor wrote in her letter to the city council yesterday. The terraces must therefore return to their old size from next Friday. “It had to happen once, so that it happens six months earlier than planned is not so bad,” says a passer-by on the Nieuwmarkt.
What is less enthusiastically responded to is the tightening of the alcohol ban. Currently, retail outlets, cafeterias and liquor stores are allowed to sell until 10 p.m., but from Friday, alcohol may only be sold until 4 p.m. on Thursday through Sunday. A passer-by doesn’t like the plan: “My friend lives two blocks away. If we want to drink a glass of wine in the evening, we have to walk much further to get it.”
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“The people who cause nuisance are not our customers”
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But there are also positive voices, such as from Els Iping. She has been campaigning for this problem for much longer, for example she walks with local residents to supervise the Red Light District in the evenings: “I said it years ago, this is going to turn out wrong. And now we are there.” She is happy that there is finally recognition. “It is now being admitted that something really needs to be done, that feels good. It has become a polluted amusement park here.”
Group formation after closing
A possible next step is to limit opening hours for catering establishments in the area. There would be a 2:00 AM closing time on weekends. According to Rob van den Brom of café De Zeevaart, a bad idea. “All the people who come here and cause nuisance are not our customers. Our customers are local residents.”
He thinks that the nuisance in the Red Light District will not be countered by such a measure. “People still get their drink,” says another catering entrepreneur. “Then everyone will be outside after closing time with purchased drinks, just like during the curfew.”
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Entrance gates
The last possible step concerns reducing to 70 percent of the visitor numbers for corona. First of all, the mayor wants to use extra enforcement for this. But if this is necessary, in the extreme case even access gates could be a possibility. “That’s cool,” says a regular of Van den Brom’s cafe. “Then there will soon be queues to enter this area, which will only cause more nuisance.”
Els Iping also has her doubts about this. “It is also possible that people then go crazy because they think they are in the amusement park.” But one woman who’s lived in the city for more than fifty years thinks that’s a great idea too: “Amsterdam is so much more than partying stoned and drunk, they might as well try if necessary.”
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