Fred, almost 65, in Buitenveldert is speechless when he hears that there may be an erotic center on the south side of the station, in the loop of the A10 exit near the RAI. His surprise soon turns to anger. “You can not be serious. The world is going crazy. This is pure madness: setting up an erotic center with a hundred sex workers in the middle of a residential area with the elderly and children?”
He quickly does a calculation. “One hundred sex workers with five to eight clients a day. That means 500 to 800 cars driving around in this neighborhood. It gets busy and busy. If the Horecava or caravan fair is in the RAI, you can no longer find a parking space here. I have no interest in that nonsense at all.”
His neighbor Jan Koomen can already see it: buses with tourists, drunkenness, drug nuisance until late at night, parking problems and crime. “Not intended to be derogatory, but this does not fit in a residential area. The NDSM seems like a much better place to me.”
Helaleh Naghshi and her daughter Aida Alai get a little giggly about it. “Hundred…? That’s quite a lot,” says Naghshi. They predict that the atmosphere will change. “It is now quiet, safe and tidy here. No drunk men on the sidewalk, no puking tourists. We are not only concerned about the sex workers, but everything that comes with it. The atmosphere in the beautiful park will also change.”
But if you really have to, then ten instead of a hundred, they say.
Not a good example
On the other side of the A10 opposite the RAI – in the so-called Green Zoom, right next to the NH Hotel on the Europaboulevard – the sounds are no different. The residents from the area of the Gelrestraat in the Rivierenbuurt can hardly believe the news. “I think it’s really bad. There are many children here and when they walk past the erotic center, they will hear about it. That is not a good example,” says Souad Bijou. “Let those red lights stay in the city.”
Belle van Nimwegen (20) also prefers not that many men will soon be walking around in the Rivierenbuurt. “I don’t think it’s a bad industry per se, but I don’t like it when there are a lot of men on the street. It is already quite dark and quiet here at night.”
Potential neighbor
The Docklandsplot is located between the Street Museum and café-restaurant IJver, which has been designated as the third search location for the intended erotic centre. It is an imposing, almost vacant lot. Now it is used for markets and events, graffiti artists can show their art on the walls of the old ship shed.
“No one is happy about this,” responds Reinout Ezinga (40), co-owner of IJver, the potential direct neighbour. “It seems that at the town hall there is still an image of the romance of prostitution, combined with catering and entertainment, that it would become a great place. But I think it will be more of a grim location with drug riots and tourists. It would killing are for our appearance as one all day friendly place.”
Bridges over the IJ
Residents of the NDSM often share his opinion. “An erotic center, that doesn’t make the neighborhood any better,” says Saskia (57) who has just arrived at her apartment complex. She would look out for it immediately, when it comes. “What are we supposed to do here with those kind of swindlers? I just moved out of town to get away from that kind of hustle and bustle. And then everything that is forbidden comes here? The parties, the beer bikes. People are already puking in the porch after a party. The problem of the Red Light District is only being moved.”
Zeyhan Guvenc (49), who lives a little further on in Buiksloterham, is more nuanced. “I am not necessarily waiting for it, but I am not against it in principle. The NDSM had to become an urban district and that means that you also have to bring urban affairs in this direction. If it helps to accelerate the bridges across the IJ, it might even be good.”
Unsafe
It is a neat neighbourhood, says Shakira (26). “And finally things are starting to get a bit safe here, when I came to live here six years ago, I often felt unsafe. Such an erotic center does not seem nice at all to me. And all those tourists? It’s busy enough here.”
“The RAI seems like a more logical location to me,” says Sjoerd Steenbeek (no age), owner of the NEXT restaurant on the NDSM pier. “With all those conference visitors.” His partner Michiel de Vries (35) adds: “Here at the yard, you want quality commotion, not a finishing tower.”
Reactions of district chairmen: ‘We look at quality of life and nuisance’
District chairman Brahim Abid (PvdA) from Noord is not enthusiastic about the plans presented on Thursday. “My first reaction is that I strongly wonder whether the NDSM-Oost, as a specific location in North, is a good location.”
The chairman refers to plans to create extra greenery and sports fields, the parking problem and local residents who are inconvenienced by events. Abid: “In addition, there will be homes and a school on the NDSM and in the neighborhood behind it. An extra plan that requires space does not help.”
He doesn’t want to lie completely ahead of the plans just yet. “There are three search locations in the picture; now to say that it is not possible in Noord is premature. We will think about the advice we have to give to the municipal executive, together with the district committee and residents. But in my opinion, we already have enough issues to solve at the NDSM.”
Amsterdam South
From South, chairman Bart Vink (D66) says that he would like to think about a solution and contribute constructively to this research. “We are going to see what this would mean for the proposed locations in South.”
He does point to the dissatisfaction previously expressed by, among others, city district committee members and entrepreneurs, including RAI director Paul Riemens. Vink: “We look at quality of life and possible nuisance for the environment, safety (of the sex workers) and possible economic or other effects.”
By: David Hielkema
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