Hundreds gather to express discontent with Amsterdam's erotic center plans

Hundreds of Amsterdam Zuid residents again gathered in the RAI convention center for another discussion about the city’s plans for an erotic center. Like in previous similar gatherings, there was little to no support for the center.

Amsterdam announced its plans to open an erotic center to relieve some pressure from the Red Light District in February. Two of the possible locations are in Amsterdam Zuid, and the third is at the NDSM Wharf in Noord. Locals in both districts are vehemently against the plans and have shown up in scores at previous meetings in Zuid and Noord last week to express their discontent. Sex workers also protested against the plans.

The meeting hall was packed, with around 500 locals from Zuid in attendance to ask questions and provide comments and feedback to the Stadsdeelcommissie Amsterdam-Zuid, the political leadership of the district. The committee will use the input from Monday’s meeting in its final report to the mayor, who will decide where to locate the erotic center along with the aldermen from the city's coalition parties.

“It was great to once again see a full house of attendees who presented diverse and compelling perspectives. A college director, a police officer, business owners, young and elderly locals all voiced their shared, strong opposition to bringing an Erotic Center to the RAI,” Aubrey Almanza, a homeowner and VVE President in the Rivierenbuurt, told NL Times about the meeting.

“For me, the most interesting part of the evening was hearing Halsema’s ‘selective’ data corrected. There are 16 schools in the immediate vicinity of the proposed Zuid locations. A mother read them aloud by name so that they could not be ignored. It was so powerful that she received a standing ovation. Can a sex hub really become the epicenter of an area concentrated with so many children? We truly hope someone will stop this madness,” Almanza said.

In previous meetings, several parents also expressed their concerns about raising their children in a neighborhood shared with an erotic center and the crimes they expect to accompany it. The city stressed that the police would ensure the area around the center remained safe.

On Monday night, similar concerns were raised. Several locals wondered how politicians could guarantee safety around the erotic center when there is a shortage of police personnel in Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands. Mayor Femke Halsema has frequently said that the presence of an erotic center does not automatically translate to nuisance in the neighbrohood where it will be located, but Amsterdam-Zuid residents were left unconvinced by her prior claims and were very vocal about the impact such a facility will have in residential areas.

One woman present at the meeting on Monday went a step further and asked that the political leaders consider the safety and security needs of the many foreign consulates located within a few hundred meters of the Europaplein site, as well as the European Medicines Agency. The EMA previously said they found out through media reports about the prospect of an erotic center within a few hundred meters of their doorstep. The woman who spoke at the meeting expressed surprise and dismay at the city's attitude towards the needs and wishes of the EMA and nearby consulates, and asked the district committee to promise to be more forthcoming with them, if only for the purpose of foreign relations.

Another woman also said that in a casual conversation with someone from the Koninklijke Marechausee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military, she had the sense that the organization and the police would have difficulty continuing to protect Jewish sites in the neighborhood if the erotic center brings crowds.

The Stadsdeelcommissie Amsterdam-Zuid will next meet with experts, and people from interest groups at a public meeting in the RAI on April 12. Feedback from both meetings will be used when the committee issues its report to the mayor and aldermen. They are expected to make a decision in the autumn about a location for the erotic center, with a vote in the full city council expected at the beginning of 2024. Halsema has repeatedly asserted that a majority of city council will vote in favor of the plan, which is part of the agreement between her GroenLinks party, PvdA, and D66.

But one man said it was rather ridiculous to organize these community meetings if coalition party members will rubber-stamp the erotic center regardless of opposing views from the residents who are most affected. “Then why are we here?” the local resident wanted to know on Monday evening. “Why are we spending our time and energy on this?”