Now here is an interesting news article

Enlarge 1997 photo by Peter Dejong, AP


Amsterdam's buyout offer bothers brothels


Prostitutes wait for customers behind brothel windows in Amsterdam's central redlight district, known as the Wallen. The city plans to buy out about a third of the brothels in the district.




By Jeffrey Stinson, USA TODAY
AMSTERDAM — City officials are clamping down on one of Amsterdam's most famous attractions: the central red-light district, where prostitution has thrived for a century and was legalized in 2000.
The city plans to buy out 18 brothels that feature 51 streetside windows where prostitutes sit on display and wait for customers.

"We're tightening policies in the red-light district to reduce crime and reduce the excessive number of brothels," Mayor Job Cohen says. "It's not our intention to eliminate prostitution."

The move has caused an uproar in the Wallen, the canal-laced area where tourists gawk, take guided tours or pay for sex. One of a dozen areas in Amsterdam with licensed prostitution, the Wallen is the biggest and most famous.

The city's move would sweep out about a third of the district's brothels to make room for housing or businesses.

Prostitutes and brothel owners accuse the city of trying to eliminate prostitution in the Wallen.

"They want to close us," says Jan Broers, owner of three Wallen brothels. The district "has been here 100 years. It's legal. It's licensed. We pay taxes. But they really want to get rid of us because they don't like it."

The Dutch tradition of tolerance — or gedoogbeleid — allowed prostitution to flourish long before it was legalized. Same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and use of marijuana also are legal here.

Brothel closures run counter to that tradition, those in the district say. "It will never work," says Ton Van den Brink, 53, who owns a lunch counter near brothels, sex shops and "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold and smoked. The Wallen "is like a supermarket. Everybody needs to go there for things they need."

Prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands since October 2000, when the government sought to control it through regulation. The aim was to better protect women, drive out pimps and raise taxes.

There is no estimate of how much revenue is brought in by the sex trade, the Amsterdam Tourism and Convention Board says.

Brothels are licensed and inspected by the city. Prostitutes rent windows and rooms from owners by the day. Broers, secretary of an association of 65 brothel owners, charges $85-$155 for one of his windows for an eight-hour shift.

Prostitutes are liable for 19% sales tax on fees for their services and 30%-35% in income taxes.

Prostitutes in the Wallen typically charge customers $50-$70 for sex, says Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who works as an advocate at the Wallen's Prostitution Information Center.

Lucy Lee, a 25-year-old prostitute, says the closures will mean less competition and more business for her in the short run. Long-term, though, "if (word gets out) the windows are closing, nobody will come."