In 2022 it should become clear where the erotic center will be that will relieve the Red Light District. Local residents in Amsterdam East and Southeast choose to flee forward and organize themselves against the plans of Mayor Halsema.

It must be safe and of some level; the new erotic center somewhere in the capital where about 100 sex workers offer their services and that should lead to fewer windows and less nuisance in the Red Light District.

Eight possible places have been designated, two of which are in Amsterdam Zuidoost. The Amstel III area and the Arena Poort are still ‘search areas’. Local residents Wilma Kop and Mireille Westfa do not want to wait for the outcome of the search; their online petition against the center’s arrival has since been signed 750.

Westfa: “It gives me a strange feeling in my stomach. It’s just what Wilma says, we are dealing with poverty here, with vulnerable young people and vulnerable single mothers.”

Orville Breeveld is also concerned about the safety of the district. He feels that the plans for an ero center are at odds with Halsema’s plans to put things right with the Southeast Master Plan.

Breeveld: “That is a bit both in the virus and in the vaccine. That is simply not possible, that is due to an ambivalence that is simply not in the past.”

On the street, not everyone is firmly against, according to Southeast, it is even an opportunity. The matter will be discussed in the city council next week. In principle, a preferred location should be chosen by the end of this year. The residents of the Eenhoorn area in East have already started a petition.