Amsterdam red light district's renovation in full swing

AMSTERDAM - Lodewijk Asscher, deputy mayor of Amsterdam, seems determined to further advance the ongoing renovation project aimed at discouraging crimes and upgrading tourism in the city's well-known red light district.

"When we first started, a lot of people said it was impossible to change anything here. But now we are proud of the changes we have made," Asscher told reporters from Xinhua and two other British media at a stylish European restaurant in the middle of the district on Monday.

The 1012 project, launched by the municipal council about three years ago and named after the red light district's postcode, has been shutting down brothels and other businesses conducive to crimes such as cannabis shops and gambling halls, while bringing in fashion designers, fancy restaurants and art shops.

More than 100 brothels have been closed so far, midway toward the city council's goal of reducing its number by 40 percent, while one third of the 76 cannabis shops in the district, or better known "coffee shops", will be closed for the next three years, according to program director Pierre van Rossum.

"We are also redesigning public streets, boosting police activities and expanding general care for women. I am an urban planner, but I am also working with police forces and many other authorities for the project," Pierre said at the same media lunch.

For those sex workers who want to quit, the city council also has a special program with an annual budget of 500,000 euros to help them start a new life, but it has been proved to be a difficult task as most sex workers working in the district come from outside the Netherlands and often travel across Europe.

The red light district, while attracting millions of tourists from all over the world, also fuels rapid growth of sex trafficking, forced prostitution, money laundering and other crimes. In 2011, there were 99 signals of human trafficking and half of the employees in coffee shops were suspected of connecting with crimes, according to the city council.

Not surprisingly, the project has caused tensions between the city council and pimps as well as coffee shop owners in the district as many brothels are being bought out and some coffee shops are to be deprived of their exemption permits.

During a 15-minute media tour in the red light district on Monday afternoon, a middle-aged man walking out of a narrow alley full of brothels was obviously irritated when Pierre was explaining the project in front of several cameras.

In another encounter with Tony van Es, the owner of a 25-year-old coffee shop to be closed as the first case of the project this September, she clearly expressed much reluctance, adding that coffee shops could be pushed underground due to this project.

According to the city council, the project will last for 10 or 15 years. In the meantime, a new law on prostitution is widely expected to be passed as early as this summer, under which the minimum eligible age for prostitution will be raised from 18 to 21, although the profession has long been legal in the country.

"Legalization in my opinion is still a defendable option, but only if it is properly regulated," Asscher said.