“The people of Amsterdam have become strangers in their own city, particularly in the hyper-centre, which no longer belongs to them at all,” lamented Femke Halsema, the city’s mayor, in an interview with Bloomberg in July. 2022. At issue? The disastrous consequences of overtourism, with real estate prices that have become exorbitant but above all nuisances – violent fights, spillage of urine and vomiting – linked, according to her, to the consumption of drugs in the public space.
Since this observation, the elected ecologist and her municipal team have implemented a series of measures in an attempt to put an end to this daily life which has become unbearable for Amsterdammers. Among them, the ban on smoking cannabis in the famous “Red Light District” was decreed in mid-May, and could soon also be extended to the terraces of coffee shops which attract three million tourists to the capital and municipality each year. the most populated in the Netherlands. With this ban, the mayor hopes above all to discourage tourists who come only to party.
To dissuade them, the decision was also taken to reduce the opening hours of restaurants, bars and other nightclubs which must now close at 2 a.m. according to information from the Dutch site Dutch News. As for sex clubs, they have not been able to welcome customers after 3 a.m. since the beginning of April, when they had permission for 6 a.m. before. At the same time, from 1 a.m., no one will be allowed to enter establishments where alcohol is served, and the outdoor terraces of bars will also close at this time during the summer months.
Quite a symbol, for this “Red Light District” which is home to many sex clubs and coffee shops as well as the cannabis museum or even that of eroticism. However, there is no question of breaking with the history of Amsterdam, traditionally liberal and progressive, which built its reputation by becoming a city of refuge for many minorities and a certain number of free thinkers. “There is a spirit of tolerance in Amsterdam. We are always in favor of the legalization of cannabis and the non-criminalization of prostitution. This is also part of our history,” assured Femke Halsema, who is still carrying the project to move sex workers to the outskirts of the city.
