URBAN STRUGGLE PAPER
1-2-2013

Introduction
Outline of the paper
Theory
Eyes upon the street
Gentrification
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Method
Observations
Interviews
Sample
Results
Eyes upon the street
Gentrification: The recreation of the Red-Light District
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5
Discussion of the Findings
Conclusion
References
Appendix overview
Appendix A: Responsibility report
Appendix B: Interviews
Appendix C: Observations
Appendix D: Interview Guide
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
The Red-light district could be described as a bubble in the city. It is a separate reality, coexisting with the rest of the city, but on its own terms. If passing by, the half naked brothel girls in the red illuminated windows seem unimaginable. They are a part of the cityscape with their flirting, smiling and knocking as they are trying to make a living by inviting men inside.
Furthermore, we have the coffee shops filled with tourists, neon lights illuminating the street corners and the sex toys shops - the one more provocative than the last.
But behind this facade of promiscuous girls, neon lights and flocks of tourists something else is going on. The authorities of Amsterdam are trying to decrease criminality in the Red-light district. With Project 1012 they want to maintain the typical characteristics of the Red-light district but also add new types of businesses in order to create a more diverse area in order to attract a wider array of visitors.
When doing our observations, we could not miss to notice the designer shops and art galleries in the streets, just adjacent to the prostitutes and coffee shops. The City of Amsterdam has since 2004 also worked together with the police, residents and businesses to develop a safer environment in the area. The security cameras are an evident reminder of the efforts into making the area safer and so are the police strolling around in the streets. Buildings that earlier housed brothels have been sold to other types of businesses, like artists and designers.
We want to discover these well-intentioned attempts to recreate the area. Perhaps the tourists will benefit from a safer area, but what consequences will this have for the future of the area?
With the project 1012 as our frame, we have found two themes – safety and gentrification.
Our informants all felt very safe, so in that way the project have been a success. But we also discovered that the safety initiatives and house sales to designers forced other sections of the population away from the neighborhood. Unwanted people. This schism between an intention to increase safety, but on the other hand risking processes of gentrification, is the focus of this paper. The paper is thus structured around the question: How do the users of Red-Light
District experience the changes following Project 1012, and how has it affected their perception of safety in the area?
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Red Light District
To guide our research, we have investigated these sub questions, which constitutes the basis for our interview-guide and research in general:
1.
What makes people feel safe? a.
Is there an effect of “eyes on the street”? b.
How do people feel about surveillance?
2.
How can the initiatives of Project 1012 be seen as gentrification? a.
Are there some people who “benefits” more than others from these changes? b.
What indicators does the informants articulate regarding the “changes”
3.
How can Project 1012 be seen as a contribution to safety in the area?
Outline of the paper
The paper reflects our twofold focus about safety and gentrification. First, in the section methods, we explain our choice of methods and how we framed and conducted our research.
Second, in the section theory, we present the theories that have guided our focus in the research. These will be used to explain our findings and how we link these to the two themes
– safety and gentrification. Third, a presentation and analysis of our results will follow.
Fourth, in the discussion, we discuss our findings in relation to our theories, we also discuss two central paradoxes. Finally, a final conclusion will be presented.
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Red Light District
In this chapter we will describe the theories we used as a theoretical background to our research
Eyes upon the street
According to Jane Jacobs (2010) a city can be characterized as a place of strangers with the important criterion for success that people must feel safe and secure on the street among all these strangers (Jacobs, 2010). Further, she states: “ when people say that a city, or a part of it, is dangerous or is a jungle, what they mean primarily is that they do not feel safe on the sidewalks ” (Jacobs, 2010, p. 273). This is for us an interesting perspective since our focus is on the Red Lights District – where there are a lot of strangers; both the inhabitants and the large number of tourist, and on how people’s perception of safety are in the area. For Jacobs, it takes certain qualities to make a street safe: The most relevant in this case must be eyes upon the street and that people use the sidewalks continuously (Jacobs, 2010). Jacobs will be elaborated further in the following part, while George Simmel and Michel Foucault will succinctly be featured to nuance and challenge her.
Especially important in creating safety are the stores along the streets, because they give people reasons to use the sidewalks and because the storekeepers have an interest in maintaining a secure environment. This interest stems from the desire of wanting people to buy things from their shops and from the fact that e.g. vandalism on shops is expensive
(Jacobs, 2010). Therefore shopkeepers feel a responsibility for the streets and keep an eye upon it and thereby they generate safety and are great street watchers. On the other hand, “ a deserted city street is apt to be unsafe
” (Jacobs, 2010, p. 276). So there should be a certain amount of people using the streets frequently to make them safe. But public peace is not only a function of storekeepers and the number of users, or police for that matter; it is also a more complex phenomena being upheld by voluntary control of the people themselves. Thereby, people are more or less conscious involved in - or at least watching, the streets and each other
(Jacobs, 2010). This notion can though be contradicted by the blasé attitude
of Simmel
(2010). According to him, people who live in the city relate to each other in a so-called blasé manner, because of over-stimulated nerves. As consequence people have a reserved and
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District indifferent attitude toward each other and order exists because of precision and coordination, and not because of interaction or involvement (Simmel, 2010). This attitude might have an impact on safety as people act reserved toward each other. Foucault (2010) has a different approach to control which also can be related to safety, by him it can be explained through the metaphor of Panopticon: People are self-disciplined and controlled by the possibility of being observed; the few watch the many (Foucault, 2010). This is in line with Jacobs’s (2010) notion about the shopkeepers; where the few shopkeepers keep an eye upon the street, but it is also in contradiction, as she does not highlight external circumstances as being that important and with Foucault’s (2010) terms externalities as police and security cameras could be seen as the ‘few’ who watch the many.
Gentrification
Back in 1876, in London’s late-Victorian time, the prostitute was the quintessential female figure of the urban scene. For men as well as women, the prostitute was the central spectacle in a set of urban encounters and fantasies. From 1849, in the time of Cholera, sanitary reformers started to identify the prostitute as the conduit of infection to respectable society because she ‘carried the heavy scent of the masses’ and therefore they were perceived as not only a physical but also a moral form of pollution and in 1886 they started moving prostitutes to other quarters to keep them from the public eye (Walkowitz, 2010).
This can be seen as a form of gentrification. One result is a higher occupancy rate of the remaining windows, which implies higher rents charged to the women, who don’t charge higher rates to the ‘Johns’, and more money made by the building owners renting out the windows; in other words, the women carry the brunt of this equation (Aalbers & Sabat, 2012).
Gentrification is a dynamic that emerges in urban area’s when residential changes, urban planning and other phenomena affect the composition of a neighbourhood. Urban gentrification often involves migration of residents of a neighbourhood. In a community undergoing gentrification, the average income decreases (Smith, 2010).
Architecture and urban space are designed to show only what we want people to see.
Mike Davis’ (2010) extract looks at some of the micro politics of the treatment of the underclass, especially as it relates to the built form of the city, in what he calls the sadistic street environments of downtown LA at a larger scale, the redevelopment of certain
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Red Light District neighbourhoods downtown effectively segregates rich and poor and eliminates all reference to its past (Davis, 2010). We are always hardening the streets against the people we don’t want there anymore to make sure people feel safer (Davis, 2010). We tend to erase traces of the lower class to increase the image of the neighbourhood (Smith, 2010).
One of the practices of Plan 1012 was to place artists and designers in spaces of the former light windows, the artists that have taken part in this project are known as ‘marginal gentrifiers.’ Marginal gentrifiers are groups with little economic capital, but a great deal of cultural capital, they may be seen as people who are not rich, but their presence reinforce or jumpstart gentrification processes (Aalbers & Sabat, 2012).
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Red Light District
This chapter describes out methods and the way we’ve collected the empirical data for this research
Our empirical data relies on two sources: qualitative interviews and ethnographical observations. These methods provide us the best opportunity to get insight to our informant’s personal experiences, combined with our own subjective insight. In total, we conducted 14 interviews and 14 observations; transcribed interviews and observation-notes can be found in the appendix.
Observations
The observations are done as our attempt to get a personal, subjective insight of the area, and have also been used to form the design of the interview-guide. The observations were done on different days and times. Because we wanted to take advantage of our subjectivity, we did not use a specific observation-guide. However, we intended to make the observations as descriptive as possible.
Interviews
The interviews are created in a semi-structured manner around the project’s sub-questions, presented in the introduction . However, due to a (intended) diverse set of informants, we allow our informants to form and shape the interviews, instead of following a too strict structure.
Sample
The informants are chosen on the streets of Red-light district or in the adjacent streets. Before we invite them for interview, they are asked about their relation to the area. In order to catch the diversity of the area, we aimed at having a very diverse composition of informants, thus the only requirement for them was to have a relation to the area (working, living, or frequenting). We did, however, not include any tourists in our sample, because our informants should have a longer experience with the area, and further because a tourist may not be aware of any “change” in the area following Project 1012.
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Red Light District
The results show our findings from the fieldwork for this paper, the results are divided in two central themes; safety and gentrification.
Eyes upon the street
The main theme in our interviews was the perception of safety in the Red Light District. We have asked our respondents how safe they were feeling. While some people may think that the
Red Light District is unsafe, some of the respondents described the area, as the safest place of
Amsterdam. For example, a male, who is working as a bouncer in a live sex theatre states that: “This is actually maybe the most, lest say the safest place in Amsterdam.” (Middle-aged man, bouncer). All informants said that they felt safe during day and some of them – especially females – said that they felt a little less safe at night time. A local women we interviewed stated: “I have to walk over to Central Station at 05.45, and then there’s nobody around except for instance strange man who start talking to you (…) that just gives me an unsafe feeling.”
(Resident (29), Female, p.31).
In general, informants felt safe and secure, the unanimous answer to the question why people felt so safe was: the amount of police on the street, the cameras that are recording everything that happens and the number of people on the streets. These aspects will be elaborated in the following part.
First of all, in the Red Light District a lot of police are supervising the streets and all the respondents were convinced that if something happens or goes wrong, the police will be there in any minute. The bouncer at the live sex theatre said: “There is so much control here. There is so much police. There are so much cameras. They say this like (…) a mat where the queen walks on? (…) They call this piece the carpet of Amsterdam.” (Live sex theatre bouncer (44), male, p.24) .
The bouncer is also aware of the amount of cameras. According to our respondents, the cameras support the feeling of safety. A local woman, who works and lives in the Red Light
District, states:
“I don’t have a problem with cameras I think it’s just… yeah to make it safer.”
(Resident/Employee (25), Female, p.47).
Another local women, who live in the Red
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Red Light District
Light District, said: “There were junkies in this alley (…) they moved out” (Resident (29),
Female, p.31). From the interviews it became clear that, cameras have a positive effect on the area; the areas with cameras are safer then areas without. Further on, according to a police officer the amount of police officers have declined since the 1980’s, due to the use of cameras:
“There is now less police on the street. In the 80’s (…) there were around 150 policemen on the street.”
(Police officer (59), Male, p.62) .
One of the outstanding results of the interviews is that people are really pleased by the fact that there are so many people on the streets. Most of our informants feel safer when the streets are not deserted.
“Normally I never feel unsafe, because it’s always very crowded here.”
(Resident (29), Female, p.31) This local women feels safe, because of the amount of people on the street. But, this can seem paradoxically as we saw, during the observations, that people were not really interacting – they were mainly just passing by and maybe in a hurry and didn’t notice the things happening around them. It seems that people are not involved with each other, or at least not on the surface. Because when carefully dissecting the date material it is revealed that people are not reserved and un-involved all the time, as for example in one of the observation where a women got stuck on a small hill, because of the snow and ice, a group of young men immediately helped her.
All the police, cameras and people on the street can be seen as ‘eyes upon the streets’, but out of the interviews, it became clear, that the shopkeepers, also have a special interest in keeping the area around their shop safe; they are great street watchers. All the shopkeepers said that they keep an eye on the street and on each other, as for example this shopkeeper: “ …they [the prostitutes next door] said that they would keep an eye on me and my shop here. So I will let them know if I see anything as well… So it is like this little neighborhood watch.”
(Art shop owner, Male, p.53).
Another female fashion designer, who is working at the Zeedijk said:
“Let me call it a sort of community, we help each other”
(Fashion designer (21), Female)
The contradiction in this is that, the shopkeepers leave their shops in the afternoon or early night, so in the night time there are not that many eyes upon the street. This could also explain why women feel less safe at night, because all the shops are closed at that time.
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Gentrification: The recreation of Red-Light District
Another theme in our interviews was the changes happening in the Red Light District, due to the government's Project 1012. The thoughts and opinions about these changes were varied and in many ways contradictory.
Two of the interviewed people in our project were designers, who both had their own shop in the centre of the Red Light District. They believed that there should be room for both prostitutes, coffee-shops and shop-owners and were in general very positive about the developments happening in the area: “ The stores also create the essence of the red light district. The stores also have something to offer… ” (Art Shop owner, Male, p.53). The shopowner believes that these new shops are also a part of the essence of the Red Light District and that they too can bring something to the area. Another positive sentiment about the governmental changes in the district, came from a young local man:“ From stories that i've heard from my parents about how this area was 10-15 years ago… It could at that time be very dangerous. A lot of junkies, a lot of… bad people(…) But now, it's really improved”
(Student/Resident (24), Male, p.43).
He clearly feels that the area has become much safer in recent years, that it has clearly improved since the “bad people” have left the area and made it less dangerous.
However, many of the other locals we interviewed were far more sceptical and critic about the government's project. First of all, many believed that the users of the Red Light District aren't interested in fashion and designer-shops: “There's a few designers who have their own window, but I don't think it's really working (...)it's just a window, and nothing is really happening, it's more a display than actual shop, and the people that go here they come here for the red light district, they don't care about fashion” (Resident/Employee (25), Female, p.37) . In contrast to the new shop-owners, this local woman is clearly sceptic about the project and the designers moving in. She does not believe that the people who come to the
Red Light District are interested in these shops and that much of it is most of all a windowdisplay than actual shops. Furthermore, some of the people we interviewed expressed a concern, not just for the new designer-shops moving in, but for the whole vision of the project and the consequences that might follow, as this local man expresses: “Yeah everybody is a little bit stressed because of… coffee shops and some new laws…. they are really getting oppressed. And this entire area needs to change. The government wants to take the vibe away and to create it into something they want to sell (..) they are really taking the soul away”
(Dutch Resident (31), Male, p.34) .
He feels that the government is ruining the atmosphere of
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Red Light District the area by closing down coffee-shops, introducing new laws and in the end making the area more “sell-able”. This critical view on the governments Project 1012 can be related to the articles of both Mike Davis (2010) and Neil Smith (2010), who focus on the government's attempt to make the down-town areas of LA and New York more attractive by removing the homeless and other “unattractive” people from the city-centre. This can also be seen in the article of Judith R. Walkowitz (2010), showing how prostitutes were an unwanted element in the urban areas in London already back in the Victorian age.
This tendency to remove the “unwanted” from the area is clearly expressed by a male bouncer(44, p.24): “They pulled out all the junkies and they moved them somewhere else. So they are now in other parts of the city. Of course there was a big junkie area but you don’t see them any-more”. The bouncer himself, and other locals we interviewed, were critical about these actions, since they were afraid it would not solve the problems, but only move them.
This is also a concern raised in the article of Davis (2010), where he states that the removal of homeless people from the city centre, just create new problems elsewhere.
Altogether our data gives us an ambiguous picture of the opinions about the governmental changes in the Red Light District. Some of the people we interviewed were positive and thought the shops gave new life and that the area in general had really improved. However, besides the shop-owners themselves, many of the local people felt that the special vibe of the area is fading, and that the project is just moving the troubles to other areas of the city.
This raises the question whether Project 1012 has actually managed to resolve problems with high criminality and unsafety or whether it is all just an example of gentrification, removing the junkies, prostitutes and homeless in order to make the area more attractive for creative youngsters and middle-class families.
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Red Light District
Although not the only intentional potential outcome of Project 1012, safety is key. As art shops, boutiques and galleries replace the prostitutes, one of the desired outcomes of this is that due to a sense of responsibility, these new entrepreneurs will maintain safety on their streets. In our results we have seen that people generally feel safe and examples of local businesses maintaining safety are evident. This is in line with Jacobs who states that shop owners function as ‘eyes on the street’, increasing the safety. A paradox becomes clear here; as the businesses close in the afternoon or early evening, so do the eyes on the street. In this sense the project has failed at increasing security as the public ‘street watch’ only serves for less than half a day and during the time of day when there are the least amount of people.
But, as we have seen in our data, this evidence might contain self-contradictions. In general, people feel safer on the street when there are other people around. Even if they hesitate or do not help, one is arguably less like to be attacked when there are a large amount of witnesses.
The question here is: does this apply to the Red-Light District, where we see a larger volume of people at night-time yet these people are more likely to be intoxicated and there is a higher proportion of strange men? As it is evident from our findings that people generally do feel safe, it is possible that the things that make people feel most safe are the cameras and police as they work all day and night. This is in line with Foucault’s (2010) theory of social control.
People on the streets of the Red-Light District do not behave in a dangerous manner due to the consistent camera and police surveillance. In our findings, we have seen that the users of the streets of the Red-Light District do not interact with each other. This can be related to the blasé attitude that Simmel (2010) refers to. However it is possible that this blasé attitude is only on the surface as in one of the observations where a group of young men immediately helped a woman in need. This exterior blasé attitude may be explained as the men’s attempt to avoid judgement by others on the streets of the district.
A second paradox emerges as we turn attention to the possible negative outcome of the project: processes of gentrification. It is clear that those who support the project changes do so on the grounds of increased safety (among other things) and for those who do not, their reasons are unrelated to safety. Critiques of the project are based on the removal of the soul of the district and the removal of the ‘problems’ to other areas. The removal of the soul can be
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Red Light District related to Davis’ (2010) and Smith’s (2010) extracts where they discuss governmental approaches to remove ‘unattractive’ people from LA and New York city centres in an attempt to attract middle-class families and creative people. The removal of problems to other areas is in line with gentrification so; the way in which the government attempts to improve the safety of the Red-Light District can be seen as a form of gentrification and this is evident in our findings. Increased safety in the district is arguably at the cost of the safety in other areas of the city. Therefore, it might be the case that the changes following project 1012 do not improve city life, but only local life.
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Red Light District
In this research paper we have studied: “ How do the users of Red-Light District experience the changes following project 1012, and how has it affected their perception of safety in the area?”
. On the basis of 14 qualitative interviews and 14 observation studies, which has been designed and relativized to theories on the topics of gentrification and safety, we are convinced that most of the users of Red-Light district feel safe. In that way, one could argue that the Project 1012 has been a success.
However, Smith and Davis (2010) along with many of our informants remind us, that the initiatives have not been inherently unproblematic. First, the installation of artists and creative people and closing of coffee shops and removing prostitutes might resemble the intention of increasing safety by adding eyes upon the street, as Jacobs focus on. This might have worked in daytime, but at nighttime these creative shops are closed. Second, this process might end up just moving the problems from Red-Light district to another area. This is another paradoxical concern about the process of gentrification, and our informants articulate this concern along a general fear of a depletion of the “Red-Light soul”.
So overall, the users of the area recognize the “changes” following project 1012, but are in general not entirely positive about the outcomes of it. It might be the case that the project had made significant positive changes for the area as neighborhood, but the city life in Red-Light might be threatened.
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Aalbers, M. B., & Sabat, M. (2012). Re-making a landscape of prostitution: The Amsterdam
Red Light District. City: Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action,
16 (1-2), 112-128.
Davis, M. (2010). City of quartz: Excavating the future in Los Angeles. In G. Bridge, & S.
Watson , The Blackwell City Reader (Vol. III, pp. 193-200). Chichester, West-Sussex,
England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Foucault, M. (2010). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. In G. Bridge, & S.
Watson, The Blackwell City Reader (Vol. III, pp. 221-227). Chichester, West-Sussex,
England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Jacobs, J. (2010). The death and life of great american cities. In G. Bridge, & S. Watson, The
Blackwell City Reader (Vol. IV, pp. 273-277). Chichester, West-Sussex, England:
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Press Office City of Amsterdam. (2012, 5 15). FAQs about the plans for Amsterdam city centre (‘Project 1012’).
Opgehaald van IAmsterdam: http://www.iamsterdam.com/~/media/PDF/FAQ_1012.pdf
Simmel, G. (2010). The metropolis and mental life. In G. Bridge, & S. Watson, The Blackwell
City Reader (Vol. II, pp. 103-110). Chichester, West-Sussex, England: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd.
Smith, N. (2010). After Tompkins Square Park: Degentrification and the revanchist city. In G.
Bridge, & S. Watson, The Blackwell City Reader (Vol. III, pp. 201-210). Chichester,
West-Sussex, England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Walkowitz, J. R. (2010). City of dreadful delight: Narratives of sexual danger in late-
Victorian London. In G. Bridge, & S. Watson, The Blackwell City Reader (Vol. IV, pp. 303-310). Chichester, West-Sussex, England: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Appendix A: Responsibility Report
Appendix B:Interviews
Hostel Receptionist at Christian Hostel (18)
Live sex theatre bouncer (44), Male
Barkeeper (48), Male
Resident (29), Female
Dutch Resident (31), Male
Front desk hotel receptionist (23) Female
Student / Resident (24), Male
Psychedelic Artist (27), Male
Resident / Employee (25), Female
Cultural heritage professional/ resident (26), Female
Art Shop owner, Male
Fashion designer (37), Female
Fashion designer (21), Female
Police officer (59), Male
Appendix C: Observations
Date: 13/01/2013
Time 15.50-16.45
Place: Oudezijds voorburgwal/Oudekennissteeg/Oudekerksburg
Date: 17/01/2013
Time: 13.00
Place: The street of Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Date: 17/01/2013, time: 13.00-14.00.
Location: Around Oude Kerk
Date: 18/01/2013
Date: 20/01/2013
Time 22.30-23.00
Place: At Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal
Time: 14.40-15.35
Location: The corner of Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Molensteeg
Date: 21/01/ 2012
Time: 17.00
Place: Street that leads to Oude Kerk
21
37
40
56
59
62
43
47
50
53
24
28
31
34
19
20
67
65
70
73
76
79
82
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Date: 21/01/2013
Time: 17.30
Place: Warmoesstraat
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 10.00 – 11.00
Location: Around Nieuwmarkt
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 11.00-11.30
Location: Zeedijk
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 14.00-14.30
Location: Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Date: Tuesday the 22/01/2013
Time: 16.00-17.00
Location: Barndesteeg and Oudezijds Achterburgwal
84
87
90
93
96
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 17.40-18.40
Date: 23/01/2013
Time: Unknown
99
Place: Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Outside ‘Red Light District Souvenirs’ + ‘Casa Rosso’.
102
Place: Bloedstraat
Date: Thursday 24/01/2013
Time: 19.30-20.30
Place: Sint Annendwarsstraat outside ‘Smartzone’
104
Appendix D: Interview- and Observation guide 107
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Introduction: Marcel & Isabelle
Methods: Marcel & Isabelle
Theory, Safety: Trine
Theory, Gentrification: Natalie
Analysis, Safety: Tamara
Analysis, Gentrification: Mette
Discussion: Anna
Conclusion: Isabelle & Marcel
Construction of Paper: Natalie
Overall check: Anna and Tamara
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Hostel Receptionist at Christian Hostel (18)
Live sex theatre bouncer (44), Male
Barkeeper (48), Male
Resident (29), Female
Dutch Resident (31), Male
Front desk hotel receptionist (23) Female
Student / Resident (24), Male
Psychedelic Artist (27), Male
Resident / Employee (25), Female
Cultural heritage professional/ resident (26), Female
Art Shop owner, Male
Fashion designer (37), Female
Fashion designer (21), Female
Police officer (59), Male
21
24
28
31
34
37
40
56
59
62
43
47
50
53
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Hostel Receptionist at Christian Hostel (18), Unknown
(I): Hi my name is Anna. I am an exchange student from Ireland, studying here at Vrije
Universeit. Could you introduce yourself briefly?
(IP): Yeah, I’m XXX. I’m 18 years old, working at receptionist in the shelter hostel. I’ve been working here since September 2012, so four months now, four and a half months. I live in
Amsterdam in the Jordaan area.
(I): Is that far from here?
(IP): Only 20 minutes walk.
(I): Okay so not too bad. Would you ever come to the Red Light District area for reasons other than work?
(IP): No, I would just go here some- most of the time I walk through Nieuwmarkt if I go to my work, I would not go through the Red Light District.
(I): And why is that?
(IP): I prefer that route, because I don’t want to pay attention too much to the prostitutes in the windows, and it’s not pleasant for them that people are watching them all the time.
(I): Of course.
(IP): Also I prefer to bike the other route because the people on the Red Light District, it is not possible to bike there.
(I): Okay so a practicality reason also.
(IP): Yeah but also, also other reasons. Because I know that the women who work there aren’t doing their work there because they want it, but because they are forced it and it’s kind of, if you walk there you accept that they are working there and that’s not what I accept so I don’t want to show other people as if I accept it.
(I): What’s your security system like in the hostel? Do you have CCTV- *note – As I looked up I noticed 4 modern cameras.
(IP): Yeah we have safety things for our hostel itself, and in the evening it’s 1 o’clock we close our doors, you have to ring the bell to come in and we have a double door lock so we have to open this door as well.
(IP): Okay, and do you have a camera outside?
(I): Yes we do.
(IP): And in your experience here in the four months has there ever been any trouble?
(I): No.
(IP): No? Nothing?
(I): No, no.
(IP): How safe do you feel being in the Red Light District?
(I): I feel pretty safe. Maybe it’s because it’s very crowded and you know there is a lot of police watching with cameras on the streets, and there’s a lot of police walking around here on Nieuwmarkt and if something happens they can go there in really like a few minutes, yeah.
(IP): Are people who use the area aware of the security you just described?
(I): I think so yes. People who are known with the neighbourhood, yeah, for sure.
(IP): Have you noticed any changes in area in your years living here? Are you familiar with the 1012 Project?
Interview Person shakes her head.
(IP): Okay well basically the local government want to make the area more balanced so they bought some housing to put in artist shops and galleries, creative type shops. You haven’t noticed anything like that?
(I): No but I do know if you walk from the Red Light District towards the Bijenkorf shopping centre, that indeed there are a lot of windows with a bakery or art indeed. Yeah that’s what I know.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(IP): How do you view these changes?
(I): Well I think it is positive to have windows for that kind of occasions but I do think as well that if you put lots of that kind of shops in the area the prostitutes windows are also normal, and that’s an image- I don’t know if it’s the right image to give that to other people, that it’s just a normal shopping street, that the things that happen there are normal. I don’t think that’s a good image they give with it.
(IP): Can you expand?
(I): I think it’s kind of a dark area, which we can really see that the things that are happening there is not good for the girls. What the Dutch government did was make it legal of course so they could control it more but making it legal it also shows that they kind of think its normal to do. That’s a thing, I don’t think.
(IP): At the beginning you stated that you ‘know’ that the girls are being forced to work there, how do you know this?
(IP): Because our hostels, XXX (name of hostel), we are part of a larger organisation, which is called XXX and they work in this area as a Christian ministry that has as well a project for girls who work in the Red Light District, they give some nursery to people who work there, so they are known with the things that are happening around there, and they work with that as good as possible in a Christian response as well. So that’s why I know about it and these people go to the Red Light District and build up friendships with the women who work there, they just knock on the door, give a cup of coffee, some tea, just talk with them and try to let them know that there are people who think that they are valuable enough to just spend time with and to- or value enough to just build a friendship with. And with working with these girls and with showing them this love and affection, they really really found out that 90% of the girls that are working there is kind of not there because they want this. Of course there are things happening in the past maybe in their families or something that they were forced to go out and earn money in a way that’s not totally proper. Mostly the girls come from very poor
Eastern Europe families, so they would say to their parents “Okay, I’m going to Europe and this guy, he can help me with dancing, I will earn some money.”, and in Amsterdam here they found out that its not dancing, like they would expect but it’s a trick of the guy, who brings them here. But the thing is though, they don’t speak English that well, so it’s hard to communicate, and the guy or girl that brings them here, they just let them sign in at the Dutch government as a business because they need- the girls who are working here are all legal in
Dutch government. Because they are signing papers which they don’t know and they don’t understand, because the papers are not in Romanian or something. So that’s kind of- they sign things they are not really aware of, and with that the person who creates this atmosphere for them, like selling or renting a window to them or accommodation here in Amsterdam, also don’t do it in the fairest way. They provide girls with very expensive rooms and they build up a big debt with this person because they need to pay back which means that they are kind of stuck in this whole system of paying debts, ‘I need to work more, okay the only thing I can do is this but by doing this the debts will grow deeper’ and this is just not justice at all.
(I): Of course. Do you know anything about any danger the girls could be in?
(IP): I think that’s a question that I’m not sure, but it is obvious that the girls aren’t feeling secure. If persons who offer help to them at the window, that they are like ‘Okay, who is watching me now?’, ‘Where is the person that takes care of me?’, ‘Am I safe to talk now?’,
‘Can I talk?’, and that’s really something that shows a lot, that they are not free at all to talk with other people about what they do and why they are there, they always have this feeling of danger.
(I): Okay, moving on from the prostitutes, how safe do you think other users feel in the district?
(IP): Yeah for them, I think they are the customers, they would not be harmed.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(I): But there could be other dangers on the streets?
(IP): Oh yeah, pick-pockets, yeah. But I think, and of course I heard some terrible stories what happened on the Red Light District, when people were bumping against a person who is angry or maybe under the influence of drugs, that they would get attacked, that kind of stories I do hear sometimes.
(I): Where do you hear these stories? Who from?
(IP): From my friends.
(I): Could you recall a particular one?
(IP): There is a testimonial of a guy who worked here at the shelter, you can find it on our website XXX. Yeah just watch it, he tells his story, that’s the story I know.
(I): Okay that’s fine. Does the hostel contribute to the safety of the area in anyway?
(IP): Oh yes I think so, people who come here in the hostel, when they step in they have a feeling of being a safe area because of the atmosphere we have in the hostel. We are a
Christian hostel, and compared to where they come from, the dark place outside, it is really different if you walk there with all the bad people who surround you or if you are here.
(I): Is the location of the hostel on purpose so?
(IP): Yeah, it’s for a reason we are here I think.
(I): What reason is that?
(IP): This building was built in 1915 as an elementary school for poor kids in the neighbourhood, so that is why they built this building here. It was really at that time, after the
First World War in this area, there was an economic downtime here in the Netherlands, so they wanted to provide people with a free school for kids, but after the 70’s it was of course better economical times here. It was the time of the hippies who came here to Amsterdam and they found an organisation here. They found so many people in need of social help, so they set up this hostel as a place to sleep, a place to eat cheap and for social help. So in the time of hippies, they opened this place up, that was why they started here in. Now-a-days we’re still a hostel, we don’t provide social help anymore, we just want to take care of our guests. But that’s the history of this building and it’s location.
(I): Okay, that’s great thanks. I think I have everything.
(IP): Okay, no problem.
(I): Have a nice day. Bye.
(IP): You too. Bye.
23

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Live sex theatre bouncer (44), Male
(I): Hi my name is Anna de Jong. I’m a student at Vrije Universeit. I’m doing a small research project for college about the area, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?
(IP): Well I am working but it is not busy so I can answer a few questions, yes.
(I): Okay thank you. Can I record it? It will be anonymous.
(IP): Of course.
(I): Could you introduce yourself?
(IP): My name is XX and I am 44 years old. I’ve been working here 21 years.
(I): In Amsterdam or-?
(IP): No in this neighbourhood here. I started in XX (bar across the street), then I was away for some years because I had some business but I came back again at XX (current employment), we are one company actually.
(I): So how to you like working here?
(IP): Yeah it’s cool man. I studied to be a lawyer, at this college. (Points towards city centre)
But I haven’t been in the office for one day. So since I graduated I never sit in the office, never.
(I): Why?
(IP): Yes I like that whole matter about physical law, you know? I’m still reading my- how do you call it- technical literature? I still get it so I still follow it. But I never worked really in it so, yeah no I belong a little bit on the streets. I’m a street guy, yeah?
(I): It’s always been like that?
(IP): Yeah, I feel comfortable here, you know? Being a hustler. And then being a hustler in porno? That’s pretty cool.
(I): Yeah?
(IP): So no hustling in bad things, or dope or no just porn and yeah.
(I): How did you get into the business?
(IP): By coincidence and I stayed. I knew a guy in 1991 and I was studying and he asked me
‘Does- we need somebody who speaks the languages’ and the guy- I was a big guy, so I went on the door there, it’s a wild bar so I came to work for a few days and that was enough to live off.
(I): Have you ever had any ‘rough’ days on the job?
(IP): No, no, no. In all the years I work here, no I never got an, nobody hit me and I think I hitted three times in my whole career.
(I): What reasons would that be for?
(IP): Drunk, nasty, nasty to the girls. Not reacting on my request. Then it was rough.
Nowadays we can’t use violence. Nobody does, this is very controlled by the police. So they do it now. But this is actually maybe the most, lets say the safest place in Amsterdam.
(I): Why do you say that?
(IP): Because there is so much control here. There is so much police. There is so much cameras. They say this like- how do you call it- a mat where the queen walks on?
(I): A carpet?
(IP): Yeah they call this piece the carpet of Amsterdam. Yeah so people who come from outside Holland, they want to make it clean and so they want to do it like this, no violence.
Because in the past it was of course rougher but never too rough.
(I): Never too bad?
(IP): No, when you go rough you go in the neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. In the normal neighbourhoods. That’s rough.
(I): Rougher than here?
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(IP): Yeah of course man. Go in a bar, in my neighbourhood and that is loads more- different kind of neighbours, you know, drinking, fighting, that is a different thing. Here you have all nationalities together, from all over the world. And everybody seems always enjoying themselves.
(I): So you say it’s very safe here and-
(IP): Yeah especially for women, yeah? It’s very women friendly, so that’s very nice, as well the shows, we are visited as much by men as by females, that’s totally equal. We are a neat, nice, real theatre. It’s okay for women to come here by themselves or with a few girlfriends, it’s a pretty place to stay. To have a hotel here and enjoy. Only there are hookers around and in most parts of the world this is illegal. So that’s why it’s always in these neighbourhoods where you get ripped off or somebody tries to rape you or- because this is legal, and before it was legal it was accepted already, it is like kind of normal. People live here above the hookers here. (Points to windows in building above red light windows) There is a family living with children. So it is, it is not like Soho in London, where its, big ape stand there, and rip you off.
No we don’t do that here. So that’s why it’s for everybody very friendly.
(I): Would you be able to recall an instance when there was disturbance, violence or danger on the streets?
(IP): No, they pulled all the junkies and they moved them somewhere else. So they are now in other parts of the city. Of course there was a big junkie area but you don’t see them anymore, as well at night.
(I): When did that change?
(IP): Since four or five years, the city hall of Amsterdam gives heroin addicts free heroin.
(I): Do you mean methadone?
(IP): They get heroin and methadone. That was an important step. They get it clean and in a certain kind of amount that they can still function in society. So they got to work, so they are participating again in society. And it was for people who were addicted longer than 20 or 15 years. Not to be helped anymore so. The rest, the crack smokers are put in jail. They get a restraining order here.
(I) Oh really? So they are banned from coming back?
(IP): Yeah and that is again a bad thing from politics because, when you give them a restraining order here, they still are alive and go to another neighbourhood and harass other people. But anyway you won’t see junkies. The government is trying to fight the exploitation of the girls. That’s why you don’t see pimps anymore. In the past they had pimps but it was her friend, or husband. They would protect her if she was harassed. But nowadays they are not needed because there is security. They (the prostitutes) can handle all these things themselves now. They have to do book keeping! That’s why it is the cleanest neighbourhood. Everybody is book keeping here. It’s better than a big company because people are very alert. They control it very hard. They’ve been controlling this area to hard actually.
(I): Too hard?
(IP): Yeah there are very conservative voices in politics, very governistic, they try to break us down. And I don’t care because when you do that, we go underground again. It’s no problem at all! So that’s the problem they know, when you stop this, they go underground. And then you loose control.
(I): Is it more dangerous when it’s underground?
(IP): No because then you have your own people, your own wrestlers and fighters, it’s all being arranged. And when something is underground, believe me, people love this. People love to go underground. The hooker houses and gambling houses are always totally full when underground because you couldn’t come in just like that.
(I): It was exclusive?
25

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(IP): Yeah! And it was no rules, people were snorting cocaine on the tables, it was illegal anyway!
(I): Would it have been a more dangerous area for the residents when it was underground?
(IP): Oh no, the residency have been complaining about the noise at night.
(I): That’s it?
(IP): Yeah. I think they can’t complain. These are import people who want to live exclusive in this neighbourhood and then they complain about noise. That’s like you guys in Ireland complaining about all the noise with St. Patrick’s Day. We get 11 million tourists a year so..
(I): Do the tourists bring the level of safety up?
(IP): Yeah. About safety here really, that is well organised. It’s even so organised that when a girl here rips off one of these men, ah you got these girls of course, you know, a hooker can be a real real hooker, you know? ‘Hey give me 50 euros’, she does nothing and then ‘go out’ and he can go to the police but it is his word against her word and they believe her! But the government are investing in safety, not only here but in other places in Amsterdam. Of course
Amsterdam gets harder like all of Europe. It gets a little rougher. It’s not so soft anymore like in the past.
(I): What do you mean by that?
(IP): Well now you’ve got all kinds of nationalities. People from all over, South Americans,
Eastern Europeans, Yugoslavians, the mentalities of these people, it was like bang bang, you know? Well they started working on that.
(I): The different nationalities clash with each other? Is that what you are saying?
(IP): Yeah, with gambling, and a lot of things, money. Because there are so many tourists it’s a nice market of course for dealers to offer people ‘Hey look what I have’ and because people are on holiday. But they are being watched now.
(I): The drug dealers are?
(IP): Yeah. So in the past, the drug dealers, they were not a harassment at all. They were the older generation and you didn’t notice them even. But now it’s the younger generation. And of course it’s a neighbourhood, men when they come in a place, with alcohol and they see naked women all the time then something happens in their minds you know?
(I): In what kind of way?
(IP): In a negative way, when you’re drunk and you see naked girls, maybe your testosterone gets a little high, it can get negative. But I think it’s controlled.
(I): So you see disturbance but nothing too serious?
(IP): No and especially now you’re here in the most quiet time of our year. Half January until half February. It’s a prostitution area where you can relax.
(I): Some people believe that most of the girls who work here are forced into it-
(IP): Yeah, you know, the politics that is lot of people believe that, I don’t believe that.
Because I work here and I know a lot of these girls. And I tell you, that the girls I know, they are not to be owned. Look I told you, who is the smarter one, the pimp or the hooker? The hooker is a very smart girl. In her work, when there is one who is getting ripped off at last, you are the one who is getting ripped off by her, not visa versa. But there are people who believe the news too much. And I don’t believe the hype. There are people who live here, not in Amsterdam, lets say in the north of Holland who think all the girls here are forced. I can say not more than 15%. And that is a lot, it has to be 0%. But look of course in every kind of business people are forced into something. You know there are a lot of guides here talking to people and I listen to them and they tell them bullshit. How can they properly know that it’s
80%? How can you properly know something from reading it in the paper? I’m here for a long time and I know.
(I): Have you noticed any government changes over the years in the area?
(IP): Oh yeah of course.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(I): Could you describe some?
(IP): Yeah well the government here in the neighbourhood, the government is a little crazy in this city. They suspected that some of these real estate houses (points up to houses across the street which have bars and red light windows in the bottom of them) that they were from criminals. That it was owned by the criminals. What did they do? They bought the real estate from our money-
(I): With tax money?
(IP): Yeah with tax money and now these houses are all empty, look all of these are empty, all bought by the state and renewed and the house market is so low, like the lowest in years for instance, nobody buys it! And especially from the city because they don’t trust the city. So that is one of the things they tried to change to make- what they city actually wants is to exploit the prostitution. That’s my opinion.
(I): How so?
(IP): Because we don’t get any money anymore, it’s a recession, bad economy. We don’t get money from The Hague so they can’t buy more real estate but if they had the chance, they bought more real estate and exploit the girls themselves. Under the reason that ‘we can protect them’ but they are going to make the money, they’re gonna see everything now.
(I): You mean because the girls have to rent the windows from the city?
(IP): Yeah that’s what they wanted. So they wanted to be the big pimp. That is the typical
Dutch mentality, look into something about weed or hash, making a lot of income tax out of weed and hash but on the other hand ‘yeah it’s bad but we make a lot of money on it’ .
(I): So are you speaking of the 1012 project?
(IP): Yeah that’s what they do with the 1021 project, buying the real estate, controlling everybody on a nearly George Orwell kind of way. This is the type of society we get now, the
George Orwell society, the 1984 society. That’s what we get. People see everything, want to know everything. There is no discretion anymore. But anyway we manage because Red Light
District is here for a long time. It won’t never disappear.
(I): So you view the 1012 Project as negative?
(IP): Yeah, the way they did this is negative. I see it like this, if you want to seek a solution for problems in a business, because there are criminals in your business, then you gotta take the criminals. When I have a spot on my hand, I’m going to make sure it’s going to disappear.
But I’m not going to cut off my whole hand! That is what they do now. That is bullshit. So people work here for a long time, they pay their taxes, why do you harass them? What you have to do, a good police force, make sure that they get the criminals. And not arrest the people who are minding their own business, that’s why the 1012 Project is no good. You could do it in a very, very different way.
(I): My understanding is that they wanted to put artists into the buildings-
(IP): Yeah they wanted to put artists, - yes I have got to go.
(I): Oh that’s okay-
(IP): No but they tried to put artists and nobody looks at the art here, that is not the place for this. It is a devaluation even for the art they make, come on.
(I): So it’s not a good mixture or balance?
(IP): No, they are already stopping it. You don’t see the art anymore in the windows. They are already stopping it, they know they are making a fool out of themselves.
(I): Alright that’s great thanks, I better let you go.
(IP): Okay you are welcome. Bye.
(I): Bye. Have a good night.
27

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Barkeeper (48), Male
Me: I’m a student from the VU University here in Amsterdam and I’m doing some research on safety in the Red Light District, I would like to ask you some questions about the safety in this neighbourhood and bars in the area. Maybe if you can introduce yourself, can you tell me something about yourself?
Jan: My name is Jan, I’m a barkeeper at XX (name bar), I’m forty-eight and I have been working here for over six months. Is that enough?
Me: Yes, are you originally from this area? Are you from Amsterdam?
Him: I live near the Westerpark
Me: So you live near Westerpark, have you been there for long?
Him: Yes, for about ten years or something
Me: Okay, How long have you been working here in this area? Have you worked at a different place somewhere around here?
Him: Altijd in dit gebied
Me: Why do you think the owner of this bar specifically chose this location?
Him: I think that’s because of the price of the property and the location, it’s very busy here with tourists, ofcourse, because we’re located in the Red Light District we have a lot of tourists stopping by.
Me: Yeah
Him: I think that that has influenced a lot in deciding to start this bar here. It seems like a logical reason to me anyway.
Me: Yes okay. So a specific reason to start a bar here is that there’s a lot of tourists coming by and that the prices of the rent are lower than in the rest of Amsterdam while tourists spend a lot.
Him: Yes, that’s it
Me: Okay, Has this bar been here for long?
Him: Almost thirteen years
Me: Thirteen years.. Do you have any idea of what was here before this bar started?
Him: Another café, there was another café here before this one
Me: Yeah, how do you feel in this neighbourhood? Do you feel safe all the time or more during the day?
Him: yes, I always feel safe.
Me: have you ever felt unsafe?
Him: No, no never.
Him: Only if my customers get very drunk and annoying, but that’s my own fault
Me: Haha.
Him: But then I make more money, so it’s good either way
Me: Yeah okay, so there has never been a situation here when you have felt unsafe? Has there ever been any drugtrade inside or outside here, or any problems with hooligans?
Him: No, we tend to be very alert about that
Me: Okay, so have you noticed any police walking by? Do they come round here often?
Him: Yes, they come around here a lot
Me: In what way does the police, in your opinion, contribute to the safety on the streets?
Him: Especially the camera’s on the street contribute to safety, we have this square outside.
And especially at night it gets a lot less fun to be out on the street, a lot quieter. And there are
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District a lot of mucky people walking around on the street, doing their filthy business. But I’m not scared, I feel safe anyway.
Me: So in what way do you think that the police and camera’s contribute to the safety? Do they, for example, contribute to keeping illegal practices to a minimum?
Him: Yes they do here, but you never know what goes about underground.
Me: Okay, so… Do you know about the 1012 plan?
Him: yes
Me: Can you tell me something about that plan? Can you give me a short description?
Him: The plan was made for cleaning out the Red Light District, taking care of criminality in the area and making sure the Wallen got safer for residents and tourists. The police direct their attention more to the Wallen.
Me: can you think of some changes that have been made to contribute to this plan?
Him: less prostitutes in the windows, more social control, less gamblingmachines in the bars and people who exploited spaces in the Red Light District have been asked to move. Their profits weren’t always traceable and I think there were a lot of illegal shops there. A lot of dirty money going around.
Me: Do you think this had a part in making this neighbourhood safer?
Him: To be completely honest, I think it didn’t.
Me: Why not then?
Him: Because I think that if bad people want to do bad things, they will do it anyway. They will always find a way to make their dirty money. And if they can’t do it somewhere on the streets, they will go underground. These practices will only go deeper underground due to social control. So I think because of the 1012 plan illegal practices will go more underground and that is due to having more police on the street. It contributes to a rise in criminality
Me: Okay, What are your feelings about the program? Do you think that there are any positive sides of the program?
Him: If you’re asking for my honest opinion, I think not. We’re being robbed of our freedom in this country.
Me: Can you elaborate on this?
Him: Just like I said, all the freedom we got and fought for are being robbed from us. They make up stupid rules for everything and we just have to follow them. I think that’s just plain wrong.
Me: What kinds of freedom do you mean?
Him: Freedom for people who engage in a certain kind of transaction, like drugs or prostitution, transactions you will never be able to get rid of. Coffeeshops might disappear, but as long as people would like to buy them, they will be available for everybody on the corner of the street.
Me: yeah, okay.
Him: That’s just something you can’t go around. An it’s something we don’t want in this area.
It used to be quit controlled and easy to maintain, but in recent years they are starting to disappear and I think they are all just going underground. You can’t prevent that.
Me: Yeah, can you notice a change in safety at the moment? Is it getting less safe because of this change?
Him: Well, I’m not scared. I’m not scared of anybody.
Me: No okay, but if you take an objective look of the streets,.
Him: I think that the situation is not improving due to certain changes. I think we were on a good road when we ‘legalized’ softdrugs, but if they want to take this back a step and reduce the amount of coffeeshops, they should check the backdoors of these shops to see what kinds of illegal trade is going on there where nobody can see it.
29

Him: If you close them of, you’re taking away your sight of what’s going on.
Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Me: Yeah, so in recent years a lot of designers and artists have been opening shops in the Red
Light District and replacing the brothels in the windows.
Him: Yes, I kind of like that. But I don’t think this is the right location for those people. I like the change, but the location is not where they should be. The Red Light District should, in that sense, be left alone. This area keeps the tourists coming, it thrives on tourists, you shouldn’t change that.
Me: But now the tourists will come for the new shops, and that is also good for the Dutch economy.
Him: I don’t think so, out of the question
Me: Do you have any safety camera’s here in the bar?
Him: yes
Me: Do they make you feel any safer?
Him: Not really, they are really just hanging there. I’m fine with them being there but I really don’t care about them.
Me: So you don’t rely on them, okay. What do you think is the future of the Red Light
District? Do you think prostitution will make a comeback or do you think there will be more artists coming to the area?
Him: I don’t know. I don’t know what the district will allow. We’ll first have to see if the
1012 project will work. I personally think it will not. Criminality will just go somewhere else.
Me: Do you think prostitution is a good thing? At least, in this area?
Him: I’m certainly not against it. If people want it, it should be there. I don’t go to brothels. I go see my own wife. But there are a lot of weird people who want to have sex and pay for it.
The girls ask for an amount of money, and they are okay with paying them that price.
Me: So, do you think that prostitution provides a part of your visitors?
Him: yes, I think so
Me: So, if prostitution were to disappear, you would get less customers.
Him: Yes, I think so. If there were no prostitutes, we would get a lot less tourists coming in.
It’s especially a really big deal for English people who come over to Amsterdam to fool around and get drunk for the weekend. I don’t really care about it, but I’m not going to turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn’t exist.
Me: Thank you
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Resident (29), Female
Me: Hello, I’m a student at the VU University here in Amsterdam, and I’m doing some research on safety in the Red Light District. Can you give me some information about yourself? I should stress that everything you say is strictly confidential and the demographics are only for my own use and shall not be published.
Her: I’m Cynthia, I’m 29 years old and I live together with my boyfriend around the corner here.
Me: Okay
Her: It’s been about half a year now, that we’ve lived here. Since June or something. So yeah.
Me: Why did you choose this place to live?
Her: We’re both from Arnhem, and after we travelled, we wanted to move to Amsterdam. It’s really hard to find a nice place to live here in Amsterdam, so finally we found a studio here with some help of friends. So it’s actually purely incidental, we weren’t really looking for a place in a specific neighbourhood. But it’s really nice to live in the city centre.
Me: Did you know beforehand that this area is known for prostitution?
Her: Yeah, yeah we both knew
Me: Was that a problem?
Her: No, no. I was actually really curious of how it would be to live here. Because of all the tourists, what kind of noises you would hear. But the atmosphere is great, even though you know there are a lot of non-kosher activities here on the streets.
Me: Okay, and do you know if the space where you live now has always been a place for residents?
Her: As far as I know it has always been a residential place. But maybe there might have been a company there or something. But not a brothel of any kind I think. Nothing strange.
Me: Haha! Okay, we will now focus some more on safety, do you ever feel unsafe here?
Her: Well yes. It’s kind of funny actually. Normally I never feel unsafe because it’s always very crowded here. There are always people around here, even when you’re walking around at 3 am there are people on the streets. So it’s always busy and I don’t necessarily feel unsafe.
The only exception is when I go to work sometimes, I have to get the train at six in the morning, this means I have to walk over to Central Station at 05:45, and then there’s nobody around except for instance some strange man who starts talking to you. He just says something like ‘Heeeey! Goodmorning’ or something you can’t understand and that just gives me an unsafe feeling.
Me: Okay
Her: So that’s really it. Like between 4 and 6 that there is just the strange people left on the streets
Me: So not at all at night?
Her: No, not at all. It’s always super busy
Me: And does that have to do with having people around? Does that give you the feeling that somebody is watching out for you? Does that give a feeling of safety?
Her: yeah look, there are so many people that if something would happen and you scream, everybody would look to see what’s happening. Because sometimes you really have to fight through the people to get where you want to be
Me: Yeah okay,
Her: So yes, it is the people who give a feeling of safety
Me: Do you ever see police walking the streets?
31

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Her: yes, a lot.
Me: Does that give a feeling of safety, because you know that you can go there?
Her: Yes, especially the feeling that they are keeping an eye out. If there would be a fight or something, like with a footballmatch, with a footballmatch you really can’t move through the street. But also in the morning, when I feel less safe, there’s always police around.
Me: So there’s really a difference between night and day
Her: yes, really
Me: Are you familiar with the 1012 plan?
Her: No
Me: it’s a program, from the government, to make the neighbourhood safer by taking some of the prostitution out and filling the empty spaces with designers and artists.
Her: Oh yes, that’s happening already!
Me: Yes, you can see it.
Her: Yes, a lot of small windows in basements and everything are now workplaces for designers and artists
Me: What do you think of this plan?
Her: I think it’s nice, and really good for the neighbourhood to get a new vibe. Because it used to be really negative.
Me: But, do you think it will make a big part of tourism fade away? Or keep tourists out?
Her: I think maybe, no I think it will not. The Red Light District is a big name and it’s very well-known for the prostitution. And I think it will be a lot better if it gets more normal around here. Yes, so you can see other things. I think that would be good.
Me: So do you think that the combination of fashion designers, artists and prostitution will provide a better image for the red light district?
Her: Yes, I do think so.
Me: So it will provide a better vibe here?
Her: Although it does sound strange, I think so. It’s strange that those professions will work together or something.
Me: Yeah, they’re working on it. So some people think it’s a good thing, while others don’t like the changes being made. The key factor to this is that prostitution is good for the economy because it’s a real tourist trap.
Me: So, have you ever been asked if you sell drugs or would like to buy some?
Her: Yes
Me: Can you elaborate?
Her: Well, if you walk around for a while, if you like walk the street 5 times somebody will eventually ask you if you would like to buy something. Not really aggressive, but they will just be standing on a corner asking you if you want to buy drugs. Or a group just whispering at you. Something like that.
Me: Yeah, okay. Have you ever seen some kind of fight in those groups of people?
Her: No, never.
Me: So like, when there’s a football match. When you have a lot of hooligans coming on this street, is that the only time when there are fights? Or does this happen more?
Her: No not really, there are not really a lot of fights. With the football, when I’m inside, there’s just a lot of noise on the streets, but you don’t really hear people fighting. Sometimes when I’m asleep you hear somebody fighting, and I look out of the window, but I;ve never seen anything dramatic happen.
Me: Do you stay of the streets on purpose when there’s a football match going on?
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Her: No, it’s just annoying that you can’t get through. But I’m not going to stay inside because of them or anything. It’s just that is busy and noisy. There’s not a really bad vibe or anything, that’s just on the mornings.
Me: Do you realize that there’s camera’s on the streets here?
Her: Yes, I quite like that actually
Me: Yeah? So do you notice a difference between places where there’s camera’s and where there’s not?
Her: I don’t actually know where they are, just that they are there. So I don’t know
Me: But you do like to have this safety measure?
Her: well yes, because you know that there is illegal business on the streets, it’s nice to know.
You don’t see it, but you know that there’s always something going on here. So it’s nice to know that it’s all controlled.
Me: Yeah okay, a bit of social control
Her: Yes exactly, but not really just for me
Me: For in the future, where would you like to see this neighbourhood go? More towards more shops or more prostitution?
Her: More shops
Me: So more shops, would you like to see prostitution disappear completely?
Her: I don’t know. I’m actually quite against it, but that’s more because I think that more than half of those girls are there against their will. If it was voluntary, I might feel better about it.
Me: So, do you realize that it’s also a big contribution to our economy here in Amsterdam?
Her: Yes, yeah. If you live here it gets really obvious, you see all those tourists going in, so yes.
Me: We just heard that although it’s still selling a womans body, they prefer to do it here than in their home country. This is because they do the same job, but they get more money out of it. So even though it’s not completely voluntary, they might be happier doing it here than at home in their own country.
Her: It’s still the same, for me it’s more about the way they got in to the prostitution than what they make now. It doesn’t give me a good feeling.
Me: So do you think that if you ban out prostitution completely, that it will go underground and illegal?
Her: yes, I do think so. If you would take it away here, it might get less. But it will still exist.
It’s a really big area, but you can’t really ban it completely.
Her: Since I’ve lived here I’ve started watching some documentaries about prostitution and read more. But it’s really hard to read.
Thank you for your participation
33

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Dutch resident (31), Male
I: So, please tell me some background information about you. What is your name? And how old are you?
IP: My name is XXX and I am 31 years old.
I: And what do you do?
IP: I am working as a analyst in a XXX.
I: So, great. And how long time have you been living here?
IP: Here in this apartment?
I: Yes.
IP: Four and a half years.
I: Oh, that is quite long.
IP: Yeah.
I: Is it rental or..
IP: Yes, it is a rental, yes.
I: So, why did you choose to move here?
IP: Well, I found this place because I know the owner of this place, it is a friend of the family.
I: Ah, okay. So that is the reason why.
IP: Yeah, exactly. So it was not on purpose that I wanted to live in the red light district. And also in general when you look for house in Amsterdam, you know, where there is a offer you go and take a look at it, you need to be lucky.
I: Yeah. How did it feel to move here?
IP: Yeah, in the beginning it was kind of fun, right, because when I was moving I was walking around with the mattresses along the streets. And it is quite funny if you are walking with a mattresses and pass the prostitutes, right?
I: Haha, yes.
IP: But yeah, now it is normal.
I: But how do you like it living here?
IP: Well, it is very central so that is convenient.
I: Mm.
IP: Basically, everything in my life is in 30 minutes from my house, my friends, and I only have 20 minutes to work.
I: Ah. That sounds great. Are you from here by the way? From Amsterdam?
IP: I am from the south of Holland, from Breda.
I: So when did you move to Amsterdam?
IP: When I was 19, after high school.
I: So why did you move here?
IP: For my studies.
I: Ah, okay. So have your idea of the area changed since you moved here?
IP: Mmm. My idea of the area, that is a good question, right. Well, before moving here I did not have a lot thoughts about the area except it is the red light district. Well, hmm. But now I think very positive, because the location is nice and also they have been mixing, there are more and more shops coming up in between the windows and so.
I: So you can see a difference, that something have changed?
IP: Yeah, exactly. Sure, sure.
I: What do you think about that change?
IP: That it mix it up with, there are those fashion designers and some waffles shops and...
What I think is positive... First of all is that red light is a more touristic attraction, and of
34

Urban Struggle
Red Light District course there are people going inside [in to the prostitutes] and there are also many regulars I guess.
I: Mhm.
IP: So, I guess, I think it is good about the red light district.
I: Do you think it is good that is is like...
IP: Yes, in general I think it is good that they have it legalized, because if it is not legalized, there is still like a red light district in every city in the world, but it will be more hidden.
I: Do you feel any difference walking around in the area during the day and the evening?
IP: No, I feel the same.
I: How safe do you feel in the area?
IP: Pretty safe. It is a very safe area. I also used to have a female flatmate, and she always felt very safe. Because it is a very safe area. There are many polices cycling around and so many tourists.
I: Yeah. Do you know if there are any cameras in the building?
IP: In this building?
I: Yeah.
IP: In this building there is, as far as I know, there are no cameras.
I: Okay, cause I have been walking around here and I have seen loads of cameras when I have been looking...
IP: In this building?
I: No no, not in the building, in the...
IP: In the area, oh yeah. Sure, sure. There are also many cameras in the area yeah. But not in this building I think. Maybe because there is this peep show downstairs, it is the same building, maybe they have cameras.
I: Haha, okay. So, how do you feel living in this area now?
IP: Well, fantastic, just normal right, just as I said, the location is very central and I like the flat and I like the complex. But mostly it is very quiet and you can just step out of the door and you have the city right there. It is very convenient. There are also many people that have joined their pension living in this complex.
I: So, your neighbors, what kind of people lives here?
IP: Mostly older people, like the flat above, they are around 70 I guess.
I: What do you think your neighbors think about the area and living here?
IP: Well, I can only speak for myself, but when I have friends over they always make fun of where I live because I live right above the peep show, but it is kind of fun. But I think it is great, when people come to visit and I just show them around the neighborhood.
(Interview persons door bell rings and we take a short break to let his visiting friend in.)
I: So what do you friends think about you living here?
IP: My friends? Hmm. They think it is kind of fun that I live there.
I: Yeah. Is that a kind of thing that you live here? Is that something people react on?
IP: Oh yeah, for sure, I am living in red light district. Specially when I am abroad and meeting friends and I say that I live in red light district, first they are scared and then I tell them that it is more a touristic attraction in Amsterdam. And of course it has some kind of image that it is dodgy and stuff, but I think it is kind of the opposite here.
I: And what do you think of that image? How your friends from abroad think about it?
IP: For here it is incorrect, but where it is illegal that image is usually correct. Then it is more hidden and less controlled.
35

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(Me saying hi to his visiting friend.)
I: Do you have any situations were you have ever felt unsafe in this area?
IP: No, I have never felt unsafe here.
I: Never?
IP: No. I never feel unsafe here.
I: Why do you think you do not do that?
IP: Because there are always people around in the area, always busy.
I: Is there people here in the middle of the night?
IP: Yeah, exactly. Even around 3 or 4 there are always more than two people around you. And of course some dodgy people, or sometimes you get offered drugs when you go to the supermarket. But it does not scare me.
I: But have you ever heard about someone that have felt unsafe here?
IP: Well, no. I do not think people feel unsafe walking around here, because it is always so busy, more touristic. I do know a girl who lives in Bos en Lommer and when she is walking around in the neighborhood there alone and there is a group of guys standing there, she feels unsafe.
I: So it is the people around here that makes it safe?
IP: Yeah.
I: Do you think people are aware of all the security cameras?
IP: I think so, they are quite visible as well. They do not try to hide them, I think that also helps. And there is often polices walking or biking around the streets of the red light district.
But I think there is a social control, that there are always some tourists are walking around.
I: Yeah. Because our teacher said that the red light is the safest area in all Amsterdam, what do you think about that?
IP: Oh yeah sure. I also say that always, because of the cameras and the police. And so many tourists.
I: I just have to see if I have something more... No, I think that was it. Do you have anything more you want to say that I have not asked you about?
IP: On the topic safety, right?
I: Yeah.
IP: No, I don't think so.
I: No more specific happenings or something, that you have come up with?
IP: Mmm. No, well. I know when I came here four years ago, sometimes I saw some fights in the street, but just in the last two years I have not seen any fights or something.
I: Oh really? Why not do you think?
IP: I think also because there is so many polices.
I: Do you feel there are more policemen now than it was when you moved here?
IP: Yeah I think so. And also there are two police stations nearby right. And they keep circling around, either by feet or by bike.
I: So they are always present in the area?
IP: Yeah. So I have never felt unsafe in the area since I moved here, and when I talk to other people they never feel unsafe.
I: So, thank you. I think that is it.
36

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Front desk hotel receptionist (23), Female
I: I just have some background questions for you, how old are you? And what is your name?
IP: I am 23 and my name is XXX.
I: And where are you from?
IP: Holland, or the east of Holland.
I: So when did you move here to Amsterdam?
IP: Five years ago.
I: Okay. So what do you do here?
IP: I study at the university and I just work part time here to finance my studies. I study communication studies.
I: Ah okay, interesting. So how long have time you worked here?
IP: One and a half years, since august last year.
I: How come you started to work here?
IP: I just sent an e-mail that I wanted to work at a hotel and I got it. They needed someone, I was at the right time. And I got hired and now I am working here.
I: What do you think about working here?
IP: It is nice, nice colleagues and relaxed atmosphere. And a lot of things happens and sometimes nothing happens. But yeah, it is diverse.
I: How safe do you feel working here?
IP: Really safe because you are always working with someone and at night there are security guys coming and, yeah, you are always working with someone. Sometimes there are crazy people on drugs or drunk or something, but you are never alone and you can always call the police at any moment so. And if something happen it is always a bit scary but, also when something is happening it is a bit exciting.
I: How often do you have to call the police?
IP: Not that often, I have called them only twice I believe.
I: Yeah.
IP: And last time was yesterday actually, Sunday morning, it was a guy coming in and he was screaming and he was weird. It was eight a'clock so the security guy just arrived and it was bad timing. So I just called them and they came and took him away.
I: Does that happen often?
IP: No, almost never.
I: So what kind of people stays here at the hotel?
IP: Different people, English people that just want to smoke and party and also the Japanese tourists that just want to see the museums. But mostly, people just want to smoke and relax.
And see the red light district.
I: Is it a young crowd or is it diverse?
IP: I would say mostly young, but also people in 40-50, sometimes even older. It is very diverse. But mostly young I think.
I: You say you feel safe here because there are always loads of people how, how do you feel when you are here on your own?
IP: Yeah, then it is just you and you have the responsibility of your own if something happen, but you still feel safe because nothing almost never happen. But you know that something can happen and then you are just here alone. So, you never alone, so that is... If your are working alone during the day there is always housekeeping and managers so we are never alone. And almost never something happen so it is not a big deal.
I: Do you see a difference from where you started working here?
IP: No, not really. No. It is pretty much the same I think.
I: Have you heard anything, from people that have been working here longer or so?
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
IP: Well, it used to be, like ten years ago, it was much more worse, much more unsafe.
I: Have you heard any stories about that?
IP: No, not really. Just drug dealing in the street and everything. I think that still happens, but maybe less in sight.
I: Have you ever seen any illegal drug dealing and things?
IP: No. Or sometimes people want to, but I'm so naïve so I don't see that.
I: Do you get the impression that guests ever feel unsafe here?
IP: Well, sometimes, maybe if there are big groups disturbing them when they are in their room they can feel uncomfortable, and sometimes people gets robbed but I think that happens everywhere. But not unsafe, no.
I: Can you mention a specific moment or specific times?
IP: Yeah, there have been a couple of fights that is also because they are tourists and they want to have a good time and they get drunk and they get stoned. Bad things happens because of that, but I think that more about them being tourist and not about the people living here. So the only accidents I can think of is with tourists. I am trying to think...
I: Yeah...
IP: Or yeah, a few weeks ago there was this guy who wanted to go into his apartment and he was followed by some Dutch guys, or people from here – locals – and they followed him and he got really scared so he got back to the hotel. But they got his key because he left it in his hurry so.
I: Oooh?
IP: Yeah, so we had to change the locks and everything.
I: Where was that?
IP: Just in a apartment down the street, it is a part of the hotel. So sometimes things happens, but I always feels safe. I guess that can happen anywhere in a big city.
I: How is your security system here?
IP: What do you mean?
I: Like cameras and stuff?
IP: Yes, we have the cameras and the police, it is just a button to press and they will come here.
I: So it is just a button and they will come?
IP: Yes, then they come immediately.
I: How long time does it take for them to come?
IP: Just about five minutes, because they are just in the other street.
I: Do you know if there is a specific police for the red light?
IP: I do not know, but they are probably here because the red light. Anyhow, they are here very quick.
I: How do you feel about that?
IP: It is good, nice that they can be here in a minute.
I: During what time is the security guys here?
IP: I do not know really, I think they come eight a'clock in the morning. I do not know actually. Sometimes they come here at the hotel around ten a'clock, but there are also other
XXX (same chain) where they are. I am not exactly sure.
I: Have you seen any of these improvements I told you about?
IP: I did not know they where making improvements before you told me, but I did not know the area that well before I started to work here. I did not come here a lot, so I have only known it for one and a half year. So I have not seen any changes since then. I can not really tell. Seams like it it as safe as a year ago.
38

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
(We get interrupted by her boss.)
I: Have your idea of the red light changed since you started to work here?
IP: Hmm.. I do not know what my idea was actually... I don't think so. Maybe I thought is was less, people just really come here to smoke and go to the prostitutes. I did't know it was that bad. Some tourists just really come here for that. And I think it is worse than I first thought, and I just come here for work and then leave. I don't know.
I: Okay. Do you work late shifts as well?
IP: No, only until eleven always. The guys only work night shifts, only guys are allowed to work night shifts so.
I: Only guys are allowed to work the night shift?
IP: Yeah. Girls can not, they are not allowed to.
I: Really, why not?
IP: I don't know, because of safety maybe? Because during the night more things happen, maybe you should come back another time and talk to them.
I: But that is interesting. Do you feel that the hotel have like a safety policy? Or instructions?
IP: I don't know about regulations, it's not written down. Or it is, yeah. Always when we have staff meetings it is always a part of the meetings. You know, how's it going and how our relationship with the security guys looks like. Yeah, it is important. Also for the guests, they have to feel safe.
(A group of young guys are screaming and asking the IP if they are too loud, because they got kicked out from the hotel bar. She talks to them and say that they are and laughing. They are leaving the lobby.)
IP: That is what I mean with the drunk people. Sometimes they gets more aggressive than that. But it is fine.
I: What do you think about the area in general?
IP: Well, I think it is quite good in some parts and some parts not.
I: Would you ever consider living here?
IP: In the red light?
I: Yeah.
IP: Oh yes. It is all about the room. Although I have a nice room now, but if I have to move out of there. You know, it is always like, in Amsterdam you do not have a choice. If you get a offer, you just take it. Wherever it is.
39

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Student / Resident (24), Male interviewer: Okay… Yes… Tell me a little about your belonging to the area…
#00:00:49-2# respondent: My history to the area?
#00:00:49-2# interviewer: Yes...
#00:00:49-6# respondent: Well, I live here. I live here in this neighbourhood, not far away from where we are sitting - only a few hundred meters. And I came to live here in the beginning of 2010. Before I lived in the east, which is quite far from here… like 15-20 minutes bicycling.
#00:01:09-4# interviewer: Which ar
#00:01:11-8# respondent: In the east, do you know the east a little bit?
#00:01:13-1# interviewer: Yeah I live there.
#00:01:15-1# respondent: In (Telling where he used to live). But anyway: I came here, and I have my studio here and I study here also. So that's my situation here.
#00:01:43-4# interviewer: You study at the UVA?
#00:01:46-6# respondent: Yeah. So I cycle… if I go to UVA it's like 5-10 minutes cycling or with the metro
#00:01:55-5# interviewer: And how old are you?
#00:01:56-0# respondent: 24
#00:01:54-8# interviewer: 24… and what made you want to move here?
#00:02:05-4# respondent: Well, of course the area is really nice here: It's really close to everything; the main things that you need. But besides, I was in the situation back then that I lived with seven other friends of mine, and we were divided over two houses… the houses were very next to each other, so it was a big partying, a lot of crazy stuff was happening over there. And at the moment I was thinking like: "Okay, I'm not getting any further here. I want to precede with my studies." So I just thought: "Okay, I want to move out and well"… the next thing that came to my mind was: "Okay, I'm gonna do it!". And I was very lucky that I got offered a place here in this area.
#00:02:59-7# interviewer: Was that very difficult? To find something here?
#00:02:59-7# respondent: Well, not really, although normally it's really but… because… it's really expensive to live here normally. And also everybody wants to live here… the prices goes up and… space is little so...
#00:03:17-7# interviewer: So… what is the most beneficiary about living here? Or… what do you really like about it?
#00:03:20-6# respondent: Well.. the main benefits is, because… I think… everything in this neighborhood… I mean, you can find everything in this neighborhood. In the center… It's… if you want to go out, you go to the center. If you want to do some shopping, you go to the center. So… Yeah, this are the main benefits from here…
#00:03:42-8# interviewer: But there are other places close to the center where you could live, but where exactly red light distict? What attracts you to that area?
#00:03:49-5# respondent: Well, what attracts me to this area is… it still has the feeling and… the appearance of an old city… because this is the old center. And it still has this… you know, the older buildings and all the… monuments and stuff. But at the same time, it has a city outlook… like the city vibe, you know? And that's what I really like. If I go out, I'm in the middle. A lot of tourist, and people and stuff. And some people don't like it, because they think: "Oh, it's too crowded" or "Too much hassle", but I think… It's really nice..
#00:04:39-5# interviewer: Yeah. I want to ask you a little about safety in this area. I see that… you've been here a lot of times before you started to live here, I guess so?
#00:06:41-0# SAFETY
#00:04:49-0# respondent: Yeah
40

Urban Struggle
Red Light District
#00:04:48-0# interviewer: So… what is your general…
#00:04:51-6# respondent: The funny thing is that I actually grew up over here.
#00:04:53-7# interviewer: You grew up here?
#00:04:54-1# respondent: Yeah. I was born here. I lived with my parents the first two years in the same street that I'm living now in my studio. And another funny thing is that my have had an office till… one year ago, in this area.
#00:05:13-7# interviewer: Okay, so you really know the area?
#00:05:15-6# respondent: I really know the area. I was… from I was a baby till now I always came here
#00:05:20-5# interviewer: How would you compare the experience of growing up there, and then frequenting the area as grown-up now? Do you think that the area has changed in any ways?
#00:05:27-8# respondent: Yeah… Well, not… When I was young I didn't really noticed, but from stories that i've heard from my parents, especially from my dad… about how this area was 10-15 years ago, even 20 years and before… It could at that time be very dangerous. A lot of junkies, a lot of… bad people… and sometimes you really have to take care of those things, and to watch out for stuff. But now, it's really improved.
#00:06:01-1# interviewer: So, you didn't feel this yourself? Or what? You've never felt unsafe here?
#00:06:05-8# respondent: No. When I lived here, I have never felt unsafe. Actually I think that now, it's one of the most safest areas in the amsterdam. I think you are safer here than when you are in the west or in the Sloterdijk or Billjmer. It's far more safe: overall you see the cops, the cameras. And there's a lot of people always.
#00:06:34-7# interviewer: But they might be here, because it's an unsafe area?
#00:06:41-0# CHANGE OF THE AREA
#00:06:37-7# respondent: Yeah, but that was 15 years ago. But the government did so much to improve this area, and they managed very well. And… Well, I never heard stories of accidents or… people going wrong… I never experienced this myself, and also from my neighbors and other people, I've heard that it's improved a lot.
#00:07:02-8# interviewer: So when you judge and area and say: "This is safe" or "This is unsafe", what kind of things do matter for you? Cameras, appearance of the police or...
#00:07:13-4# respondent: It's the package, I think. It's not like really… one thing… but… how should I describe this. It's just the feeling you have here. And that feeling is a result of everything: The cops, the cameras, the bikes… If I come home at night… There's… I don't feel unsafe.
#00:07:45-0# interviewer: What kind of… In the time I've been here… I've been here in the days and the nights, and during the weekdays and the weekends. And it seems to have so many aspects… So many faces, of the area. Is it the same feeling for you, that… the diversity of the area is something that really attracts people?
SECOND PART: 8 minutes…+
#00:00:11-7# respondent: Yeah of course. This is, what I say… It's a touristic area. All the tourists come here. So here's a lot of people, a lot of cultures, lot of people comes together…
All different nationalities. And besides, you have a lot of coffee shops, the prostitutes, but at the same time you also have the cafés here and bars and restaurants. So it's really…
#00:00:42-4# interviewer: What do you think the prostitutes do for the area? How important is it for the red light district?
#00:00:50-9# respondent: Well, I think for the whole Amsterdam. I mean… the prostitutes is still a phenomenon in Europe and in the world. What we have here, is really important for
Amsterdam, I think.
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#00:01:06-6# interviewer: And what do they… not mean… but what do they mean to you… like.. what's your...
#00:01:12-5# respondent: For being a citizen a live here?
#00:01:14-8# interviewer: Yeah
#00:01:16-3# respondent: (Thinking)
#00:01:19-1# interviewer: Is it only to attract…
#00:01:34-9# INTERSTING!!!!
#00:01:18-1# respondent: I think that I… I've lived here in about 3 years and I can imagine that if I grow up here and get older and I get a wife and a family and child… I would never grow up my child here. Believe me.
#00:01:37-4# interviewer: You would never?
#00:01:37-7# respondent: No
#00:01:38-0# interviewer: Why is that?
#00:01:39-8# respondent: No, it's the whole outlook you know? I don't want to raise my kids in an area with a lot of prostitutes. But for me, living here now, I don't have any complains. I mean: Prostitutes… It's more like… it's more about the kind of people that it attracts… The prostitutes attracts a lot of tourist. And if I go out and I'm in the middle of the city and I here a lot of… It's nice! It's more… the whole… how to say it…. the whole area: The prostitutes, the cafés, the bars. That's…
#00:02:26-2# interviewer: So to you it's… just… just one street really, and it's fun for you, and there are yeah, you don't use them (laughter)
#00:02:36-4# respondent: I don't bother, you know. I have no problem with them. It's stupid that… I've heard the government wants to close a lot of windows and a lot of prostitutes, but I think it's… not necessary.
#00:02:51-1# interviewer: Why don't you think that?
#00:02:51-1# respondent: Because there aren't any problems anymore. Yeah: Maybe there's the mafia here, maybe the… but so is elsewhere! There are no robs here, no junks on the street anymore. It's quite clean! I mean: If you walk here, you don't have any problems. I don't know, of course, if… i've heard so, that there is the mafia and a lot of… that the restaurants and coffee shops are runned by… criminals. But again, for me as a citizen, I don't have any problem.
#00:03:29-4# interviewer: So, you would not prefer that it was a clean part of town, with no prostitutes and no drugs and stuff? It's part of the package, that you like?
#00:03:38-4# respondent: It's the image of Amsterdam! I think that… this made Amsterdam special. And as long there is no problems, and as long there is no problems with tourists and criminals and stuff, then let it be. It attracts a lot of tourist, people like it here, I don't hear any complaints from neighbors and other stuff. Yeah
#00:04:07-1# interviewer: So why fix it if it works?
#00:04:08-3# respondent: Yeah. If it works, I think… It has gone for a long time, you know?
And… to remove this whole area with this outlook and characteristics and… it's specialty… I think it would be a shame. A lot of the traditions of Amsterdam would be lost.
#00:04:34-8# interviewer: Sure. I think that was it, thank you very much!
#00:04:41-8# INTERVIEW ENDS
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Red Light District
Psychedelic Artist (27), Male interviewer: Allright. Can you say how old you are?
#00:00:08-5# respondent: I'm 27.
#00:00:10-1# interviewer: 27? And your profession?
#00:00:10-6# respondent: I'm an artist. I do music and paintings.
#00:00:16-5# interviewer: Sure. And… what kind of artists?
#00:00:22-4# respondent: I call myself a psychedelic artist. But of course, all artists are psychedelic at some scale.
#00:00:34-5# interviewer: Yeah, all artist are crazy to some extent!
#00:00:37-0# respondent: Yeah, a question of madness (laugh)
#00:00:42-8# interviewer: What is your relation to this area?
#00:00:47-8# respondent: I really like the pride. There are so many things going on there. The beauty, the ugliness, the beauty of ugliness. The ugliness of beauty. It's like a micro cosmos..
#00:01:03-6# interviewer: What?
#00:01:04-5# respondent: Cosmos. I really like to enjoy the view of people, their expression, their stories. Trying to make it all together. Catch it all together to… it's a concentrated experience. Can take me an entire day
#00:01:31-3# interviewer: So to you, it's a lot about a concentration of people gathered in one place?
#00:01:38-4# respondent: Yeah
#00:01:38-7# interviewer: And how would you characterize that concentration?
#00:01:41-2# respondent: Energy. The vibe. The certain energy of a day. Or a corner. A square like here. I really like it. And the flow. Certainly, in Amsterdam and… strangely, also this area; i always get back here.
#00:02:00-9# interviewer: Why is that?
#00:02:02-0# respondent: … Good memories, I think. I went here with a lot of people, to a lot of coffee shop (laughter). It certainly adds up. And yeah, just look at it! It's like a "work in progress".
#00:02:21-8# interviewer: (Both starring at the buildings at Nieuwmarkt) Yeah the buildings are not quite… what do you call it…
#00:02:25-1# respondent: No they are not quite straight (laughter). That's the beauty of it, you know. It's like a little bit out of perspective; you can't put a finger on it.
#00:02:35-6# interviewer: But… if you should talk a little about some of those experiences that you've had here… Can you tell me about a really good or bad experience that you've had here… especially regarding… the diversity of people around here
#00:03:00-0# respondent: (Thinking) You know.. i've never really noticed it. everybody just blends in. I never had any trouble here? Not at all. Only good moments here. Like the oldschool photographer at the corner, or somebody playing music… Those moments. I don't really have very deep emotional connections to a certain area.
#00:03:32-7# interviewer: Especially relating to… safety. I mean: a lot of things have been in this area from the local municipality and stuff in order to recreate the area. Especially I hear that artists like you are drawn into this area more and more. How many years have you frequented the area?
#00:04:02-0# respondent: Since 2003.
#00:04:06-6# interviewer: 2003?
#00:04:07-9# respondent: Yeah
#00:04:10-3# interviewer: Have you noticed a change around here?
#00:04:13-4# respondent: Yeah, yeah. It's getting a little more… dirty.
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#00:04:18-0# interviewer: Dirty?
#00:04:19-4# respondent: Yeah. I don't mean the hookers or anythings - i don't mind them.
But… It's not finished. Not… not the best vibe anymore?
#00:04:42-6# interviewer: It's not the best vibe anymore? Tell me a little bit more about that
#00:04:41-1# respondent: Yeah everybody is a little bit stressed because of… coffee shops and some new laws…. they are really getting oppressed. And this entire area needs to change.
The government wants to take the vibe away and to create it into something they want to sell.
Not really… Critiqal about government or anything. But they are really taking the soul away.
#00:05:19-5# interviewer: What do you mean by that "Taking the soul away?"
#00:05:23-9# respondent: Like the passion. Like… the beauty and ugliness. Maybe that i'm already in the future in this moment but… it's a shame
#00:05:46-9# interviewer: Can you make one example concretely about a change or development that takes away the passion that you're talking about?
#00:05:57-1# respondent: Yeah, street artists: It's more hard to make music on the street every time. If you come here frequently. Good shops closing in the future, especially. a lot of great people I personally know are going away from… these places. That's about it. You know: It's really hard to explain in words sometimes! It's an emotion, you know: I'm covering up everything I really want to say
#00:06:39-5# interviewer: Mmm. So it's a feeling…. It's not just about you getting older or something, that makes it different, but you really feel that the place is a different place now?
#00:06:46-7# respondent: Yeah, I'm not really into nostalgia. It's fun to play on the Nitendo for a change. But I always move forward.
#00:07:01-8# interviewer: And you're saying, that the way that the city is going, would make you less frequently come here?
#00:07:13-2# respondent: Yeah.
#00:07:13-6# interviewer: Because it's becoming mainstream or like… mostly for the tourist or… Who are the new people in the Red Light District?
#00:07:19-7# respondent: The rich ones
#00:07:21-8# interviewer: The rich ones?
#00:07:23-6# respondent: Yeah. The ones with success. They don't like all the protests that's going on. They are really fighting against it. It's like a hidden war (laughter).
#00:07:40-1# interviewer: That's a pitty?
#00:07:43-1# respondent: Yeah, it's like they are taking away the soul of it. But you know:
Something new will come out in the end of it. But… yeah…
#00:07:51-2# interviewer: But Red Light District… I don't know: I mean, "the street", the place what the tourist would call "the red light district". I'm a foreigner, so that's the street that
I call the red light distict… that hasn't changed THAT much, has it? or would you say that? I mean, you can still find the prostitutes, the english pubs and bars.. but maybe that's not what you think is good about Red Light?
RECORDING PART 2 - 8 min+
#00:00:33-5# SOCIAL CONTROL!!!
#00:00:33-5# respondent: It's getting more controlled, and I'm not really against controlled stuff, but it's also adds new rules. Like… Forcing people to do business in another way.
#00:00:55-1# interviewer: Can you tell me a little bit more about it?
#00:00:58-1# respondent: Yeah, if we go back to "coffee shops": They want to have an percentage of THC and that's plain impossible! Because: Almost all weed over here is really good, and it would destroy their business! I know the corner shop over there (pointing to a shop) has trouble. The rent is going up. The Tokyo Joyce, the old owners already sold their
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Red Light District place, and the food is getting less better (laughter). Even though it's still good. You know?
But maybe it's me. Maybe you're right… Or maybe a combination of everything in one
#00:01:51-8# interviewer: Yeah, you're not the first one telling this! So it's really interesting what you are saying. The last topic, that I want to talk about is the issue of safety in the area:
You talked a little bit about it. It might be part of this "change" we are talking about, that they want it to make it more safe: What's your perception of safety in the area throughout the time?
#00:02:18-7# respondent: I always felt really secure: when I see people scream or anything…
I just say to myself: "This is not my business!" It really isn't. Nobody ever harassed me or anything. I never got into a fight. I see a lot of stupid people doing a lot of stupid things but…
It's just like television. I'm not going to bother with it. I really… Don't have an general idea about safety…. I think it's fine, but… There's a lot going on behind closed doors, of cours
#00:03:03-8# interviewer: But in general you feel safe here?
#00:03:08-8# respondent: yeah
#00:03:08-8# interviewer: But you also talked about control; that they control the area more now and it's more… maybe centralized? And you also… I see a lot of police around, and I see a lot places having cameras and stuff like that… How do you feel about that? If they for instance get more cameras and more police, would that change you experience of the area?
#00:03:28-3# respondent: Yeah for sure. I don't really like being watched. It doesn't really make me feel any safer. It really narrows my perspective of freedom, you know? (Looking around and thinking). But I really really do think that this is just the start of something bigger:
I've heard that they want to put up… like, X-ray stuff for the tourists in the street, in the near future.
#00:04:10-2# interviewer: Okay?
#00:04:10-2# respondent: If I'm correct they… thinking about it right now. It's a radical idea!
What helps? Why do they even think of it? We all got our own lives, creates our own reality… but I really don't care about it, because I am going to leave anyway.
#00:04:31-2# interviewer: You're going to leave?
#00:04:35-7# respondent: Yeah to Portugal.
#00:04:38-6# interviewer: Where in Portugal?
#00:04:42-2# respondent: I know some great people, musicians, who are going to make some kind of… crazy artists mansion. Some people together...
#00:04:59-7# interviewer: only musicians or different artists?
#00:05:06-5# respondent: Only musicians. I do some paintings, but only musicians. We're not even a band or anything
#00:05:16-9# interviewer: What city?
#00:05:17-4# respondent: I really don't know yet. It's a really new idea
#00:05:20-4# interviewer: Sounds nice.
#00:05:23-5# respondent: My heart tells me to do it
#00:05:28-2# interviewer: And you're the kind of man who follow his heart?
#00:05:30-9# respondent: Yeah for sure. Yeah.
#00:05:35-1# interviewer: But… I mean, relating to… sorry to go back to the safety issue, for the last one… It's just that… it seems paradoxical do me that you say on one side, you say that you'll always felt safe here, but at the same time they want to make more control and have xrays and stuff like that. I mean: Would they do that, if there was not a safety issue there?
#00:05:59-2# respondent: You know… What's safety? When I look over there, I see the guys from Hells Angels. It's clear that they're going to get some money somewhere. Coming for the rent!
#00:06:13-3# interviewer: Yeah
#00:06:14-7# respondent: That's like a total different reality than the one of the video cameras. It's like everything is colliding with each other. If they just did all their things
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Red Light District normally without bothering each other, it would be safe. I'm trying not to notice the other realities.
#00:06:38-7# interviewer: Yeah, I mean it's also two different issues, I mean: There's mafia and rockers, that's one… but what the police wants to cope with is the small criminality: tourists fighting and…
#00:07:00-6# respondent: I never saw any fighting here. Not even kidding!
#00:07:07-4# interviewer: I saw one though, but not in this area
#00:07:12-5# respondent: People falling of their chair (laughter). English men!
#00:07:16-3# interviewer: Drunk englishmen, yeah, are the biggest problem! Okay. Thank you very much!
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Resident / Employee (25), Female
Red Light District
I: do you work here full-time or?
W: I work here part time because I still have school, I study as well
I: okay, and do you live in the area as well?
W: yeah, I live at niewmarkt, just 5 minutes walk from here, then I reach home..
I:okay, and how long have you lived there?
W:ahh.. I have lived there 2 years and 8 months..
I:okay, and why did you move here, to the red light district?
W:because it was the first place I have lived in the Netherlands and I sticked to that place, I don't know where I would have to move to.. so yeah, I stick to that..
I:okay, and what do you think about the red light district?
W:if you walk it's quite safe, because there's lots of people on the streets, so no one is going to rob you or.. yeah.. I think it's quite safe, but when it quiet then you have to be careful when you walk, but when there's lots of people, then there's lots of police as well and then it's safe
I:are there a lot of police in the area?
W:yeah, if you on the right time, the busy time, then there's not any problems, yeah, but when you walk in the late night, like 4 o'clock-5 o'clock, then you must be careful..
I:and why is that?
W:well, maybe you see someone on the road trying to look for something or someone, or maybe looking for trouble or whatever.. but I try not to look into their eyes, I try just to keep walking..
I: so you feel more unsafe in the night?hat many people on the road
W:yeah, in the night when there are not that many people on the road then I feel unsafe yeah..because it's quiet and because if something happens then no one will know and then.. yeah..
I:yeah okay, do you remember a specific situation that was unpleasant or where you felt unsafe?
W:ahhm.. ahh.. I think one time, yeah, when I was walking there was this Indian guy or something, I don't really know, he tried to follow me, but then I saw some people I know, so I walked with them so.. then I got rid of him, but maybe he just wanted to approach me or something, but then I saw it on time so yeah..
I: have you tried that a lot of times?
W:no, just this one time where I felt that I needed help.. yeah..
I:yeah.. okay, and do feel then, that the area is very different in the daytime and in the nighttime?
W:different?
I:yeah, do you feel there's a difference in the area during the day and in the night?
W:yeah, it's different because in the night there's lots of people, people going out, drinking, having fun, but in the daytime it's more quiet but also safer than in the night, because it's light and then no one can harm you, then everybody can see you, but in the night you feel less safe than in the daytime, in the night you have to be aware about what's going on around you.. yeah.. i'm very careful in the night when I walk home from work..
I:yeah.. have you had any unpleasant experiences in here, while you were working?
W:ahh.. in here it's quite safe, we have lots of cameras, so if anything happens we can catch them or..
I:oh you have a lot of cameras in here?
W:yeah, so it's quite safe, if something happens here or just outside we can just have a look at the camera yes..
I:so that is to protect the people that works here?
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Red Light District
W:yes..
I: okay,then I would like to ask you about this project called 1012..
W:1012, what is that?
I:it's the area-code for the red light district and what they want to do is to try and diminish criminality in the area, they want to shut down half of the coffee-shops and window-brothels..
W:is that good for the economy? (laughing)
I:yeah.. (laughing) and then they want to get more shop-owners in the area and have more families and locals in general living here.. have you noticed any of this?
W:no.. I have not heard about that..
I:you haven't noticed any changes?
W:no (laughing)..
I:no okay.. but what do you think about the project and what they're trying to do?
W:i think for the people who live here, for families or people that work here, it's quite safe, but for the.. I don't now about the economy because the.. the red light and this area, a lot of people come here for this.. yeah..
I:a lot of tourists?
W:yeah tourists..
I:but what do you think about the changes, that they want to shut down coffee-shops and some of the..
W:for me I don't have any problem with that, I think it's a good thing if they can do that, because of the criminals and the drugs as well so.. if it's less then it means it's going to be safer than before yeah..
I:yeah okay..
W:yeah.. I don't use drugs, I don't smoke, I don't go to the red light, maybe for some drinks, but for drinks we can go anywhere so.. if they shut down the coffee-shops then it's not going to be a problem for the people living here, but maybe for the tourists who were searching for that..
I:yeah.. are the tourists a problem for you?
W:no, not for me, but maybe for.. yeah.. the economy around here, like the shops, the ones who get in contact with the tourists, the restaurants and yeah..
I:yeah.. but do you experience that there are a lot of police and cameras in the streets?
W:yeah yeah, because it's quite packed.. how do you say.. it's like a backpacking area where you see lots of people from around the word, yeah and then I think there.. there must be police to control everything, everything that is going on like ehm..more than other places..
I:yeah yeah.. and what do you think about that, that there are a lot of cameras in the street and a lot of police?
W: I think.. lots of cameras.. I don't have a problem with cameras I think it's just.. yeah to make it safer.. like if you see something happen or if they know that there is a camera around the corner then nothing is going to happen.. yeah..that way you prevent a lot of incidents that would might happen..yeah..
I:yeah.. so you think it helps?
W:yeah of course., if something happen we to can catch them, and if not then they're aware of the cameras and then it's not going happen...
I:yeah.. okay, I don't think I have any more questions, but do you have something you would like to add, something we haven't talked about, any thoughts or experiences?
W: I don't.. normally when I finish work I go home and when I walk to my home I need to be careful in the night, but in the daytime I can walk more safely..
I:do you get of late or..?
W:yeah.. it's normal time, I get of at 2 o'clock in the morning..
I:oh.. that late.. do you also have different people in here in the daytime than in the night
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Red Light District time?
W:in the night time lots of different people come, also in the daytime for dinner or in the night time if they're still hungry, or they don't know where to go they come here, or they like our food and then they come here..
I:okay, but there's not a difference in here, between the people who come at night and during the day?
W:yeah.. at night people want to have drinks and then after drinks they come here.. but not like.. yeah maybe some people are very drunk, but that's normal because it's a tourist area..
I:and you're fine with that?
W: yeah, that's fine as long as they don't harm other people, then it's no problem, because I also used to get drunk but I don't harm other people, so.. yeah..maybe they're not so understanding but that's normal..
I: yeah, so you like living in the area?
W:for work it's good, but where I live is in a corner so it's very quiet, for living I prefer a more quiet place, but for work I don't mind..
I: okay I think that was it, thank you very much for your time
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Cultural heritage professional/ resident (26), Female
Red Light District
I: how long have you lived here in the red light district?
W: since June 2012 so it's little more than half a year now
I: and why did you move here?
W: because we really needed to live together and I lived with two other girls and I really couldn't stand it any more and I really wanted to live together and then I heard about this place because someone tagged me in a facebook post saying that this had become free and I said “ohh I really want to have it” so then that was done..
I: okay, so you wanted to live here?
W: not per say, but I'm really happy with the coincidence, I'm more focused on the New West or North because those are the area you can live for quite a nice amount, but actually this really fits the profile for our expenses, and it's really a coincidence that we're in the citycenter, but I'm really happy about it I couldn't dream of.. yeah..
I: Yeah.. and what do you think about the area?
W: ehmm.. I hear many people saying that it's it's changing and also for my profession I have been looking into the 1012 project, I'm very interested in what is going to change, you know there is the thing that the move the red girls, that they're going to get rid of them in the alleys and then put them, I think, in the open space, I think that's good but I'm afraid that you know criminality or you know women-tradings is you know, will still exist but then somewhere else.. and I never have problems with junkies or the business that these girls are holding here,
I don't know, it's just a part of the history here as well, but I like it, there are many places coming, now there's “potta” the store, you should go there, it's a little further down there and it's a shoestore that used to be somewhere else but it was really popular because it had such a great stock of you know, unlimited items and.. you know there is many new things happening here..
I: yeah, I read about it and how they would apparently like to cut down half of the coffeeshops and the window-brothels as well, and make shop-owners, designers and other creative people to move in instead..
W: yeah, yeah, they did it, actually, here at the red light fashion, I think you can also see it here at the window, and there's a few designers who have their own window, but I don't think it's really working I mean it was, I think it was a project from 2010, the year, and yeah well it's just there, it's just a window, and nothing is really happening, it's more a display than actual shop, and yeah also, the people that go here they come here for the red light district, they don't care about fashion (laughing) so, it has changed, and they're also working on a project or they attend to work on a project to have more people living here instead of just tourists, so they also changed the little supermarkets that no one cares about because it's too expensive and ehm.. well it is changing..
I: yeah, and what do you think about those changes?
W: I think it's really good, but I think also the people who live here, or will live here, are going to have to accept the fact that it's noisy and you know, you always hear the sounds on the streets here because we can only have one-side glass, so you have to accept it, and I don't wan't people to complain about noise and you know, people who are living here, I mean, it's your choice, you live in the center so.. deal with it you know, and this is happening in many center-spots in Amsterdam like for example the channels, you know, you can't do anything there without someone is calling the police and say okay, shut it or.. so I think it good..
I: yeah, okay, and how safe do you feel in the area of red light district?
W: yeah, I feel safe, sometimes when I go out and I come home at you know 2 am øh.. I'm sometimes like, well it could be safer but nothing really happened, and actually there's a camera right here, outside my window, you can see it from over here, it's a police camera (we
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Red Light District both go over to the window and have a look at the camera, which is hanging on the corner of the building right next to the window)
I: okay.. are there a lot of those?
W: yeah, so they can just see into our alley here and our house.. so.. (laughing)
I: and how does that make you feel?
W: well it feels okay, it doesn't have to be there for me but it's, I think it's really working because I heard stories that there were junkies in this alley always..and.. that it was terrible and.. so..
I: so they have moved somewhere else or?
W: Yeah, I think they moved, I was just at the gym and I heard someone talking about this area as well and ehm.. she says that they moved.. well..a little bit further away from here so.. it's just still the same.. of course in front of the supermarket you realise some people that doesn't look healthy but to say that they're junkies, I don't know..
I: yeah yeah.. but when you say that you could feel safer when you go out or when you go out in the night..
W: well yeah, but it's everywhere you know, also in my home town which is not very big and..
I: yeah of course.. but what is it then, that makes you feel less safe?
W: ahh.. well it's just, you know, men staring at you, I guess it's also because of the experiences they just had there, that the girls are for sale and I have the feeling, sometimes I feel like, okay, do you know the difference, or maybe you're so pumped up, of course because it is an area where you get ehm.. well you probably get heated or something.. it doesn't do anything to me but.. I understand why they would do that.. you know just staring and there's also many many taxis here and I really don't like that because they just want to pick up tourists even though it's forbidden and they drive slow and then when you're walking they think you're a costumer and then you just have to say (makes a movement with her hand) “go away”..
I: yeah.. but can you remember any specific experiences where you..
W: no no no.. it's just a feeling you know, that during the day I feel much better and I'm not wearing those heels and.. yeah..
I: yeah.. but do you feel a big difference then, in the area, between daytime and nighttime?
W: yes, certainly, yes..
I: Yeah, can you describe it?
W: yeah, children are walking here, you know, during the day, well, and if I see a child here during the night I'm just like, ohh.. parents you should be ashamed you know, because, yeah it's not really a child friendly area and I think ehm.. well you know the shops are open, the butcher and.. you know, these things are all open till 8 or 10, well the butcher actually closes at 6, but then there's no control any more, you know, then there's just people walking around, screaming around, so I guess, so that kind of social control is just not there any more in the night..
I: so you feel that the shops actually help?
W: yeah yeah, definitely, I think there should be more.. there's not many bars here actually, there's just this cocktailbar here and then you have another one further down and you have the
Cassablanca, but that's really around the bend, but the rest is all just restaurants or shops, so..
I: yeah yeah.. but why do you feel that the shops give safety or control or..
W: well, they're open, you know, they see things and see people, also I believe that tourists they just don't care that much, they just through their trash in the streets and.. well then there's the neighbourhood who picks it up and cleans it, you know, look after the streets.. and there's is also this.. I don't know if you heard it, there's this illegal hotel-business where they rent their apartments to tourists and they're actually working on it, to reduce it, and those people that are renting the houses they're just living there for a week and they just through things out
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Red Light District of the window, i've read, because they don't care, it's not their neighbourhood and you know, that's why they want to change it..
I: to get more locals in here?
W: yeah and I think that.. okay now it's the shops but, I think they want more people to live here as well because well, above of many restaurants there's just space, there's nothing happening there so..
I: it's empty?
W: yeah, there are 2000 houses empty in the centre of Amsterdam..
I: oh really?
W: yeah, or 5000 even.. yeah, it's a terrible problem and the housing, you know, everyone wants to live in the center so they should just do it.. yeah..
I: okay.. I think that was actually it, unless you have something you would like to add? Or anything you were thinking about?
W: ehm.. no, I was just thinking how your going to use it, the interview, what you're gonna do with this information?
(I tell her more about our project and how we're going to use the interviews and afterwards the interview finishes)
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Art Shop owner, Male
I: Hello
IP: Hi
I: I’m doing a small research about this area and I just talked with a designer just a little up the street and she suggest me to go here.
IP: Okay.
I: So it would be really nice if you would like tell me something about it?
I: Sure.
IP: I have a few questions I would like to ask and it will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
I: Okay.
IP: Is it okay if I tape the conversation?
I: Hmm, is it necessary?
IP: Yes kind of, because I need to transcribe it afterword. I promise that you will be anonymous and that I will delete the tape afterword.
I: Okay, it is just because I have had a bad experience.
IP: Okay, I understand that – but really, I promise that I will delete it and that you will be anonymous. And it is only for a university exam.
I: Okay, it is fine then.
IP: Are you sure?
I: Yes yes. Sure
IP: Okay thank you so much! But first some introducing questions.
[Transcribed from tape:]
I: For how long have you had your shop here?
IP: I have been here for a month only.
I: A month. Okay. And why did you choose to have your shop here?
IP: Because I just live four blocks away -
I: Okay.
IP: - It is five minutes away.
I: And it was not because of the 1012 plan? Where you picked out or anything?
IP: No. I just live in this area. I have been living here for a year and a half. And I saw this place. It has been empty for a while. And I like this neighborhood.
I: Yeah. Do know what have been in here before?
IP: Yes, I have talked with the lady who owns the rooms and I have talked to the people who were here before – an artist, so it is nice to know the history of it. And I met the neighbors.
And they are really happy that there are shops like this in this road. And yeah, there a people behind me who are designers or stuff like that. So it is really becoming a hub for creative people.
I: So there is becoming more and more creative people or?
IP: Yes. But I think that somebody has the fear that it will turn into another high street, but I do not think that this is their [the local government] intention. I think they will celebrate what is red light district, but within that create something that is not like what has been here before.
So. And before I only thought that there were going to come tourist, but 80 percent of my clients have been the Dutch locals.
I: Yeah
IP: The fact that it is convenient for them to go here, that they are happy with that, so they do not need to go away from the red light. They can stay in the area. I would except it to be more troubled. But no. And I have prostitutes as neighbors. And people come in here to take pictures. So to protect them I have put that [points toward the windows which are covered
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District with some see through fabric] on the windows. And for my official opening which I am doing in March I will dress the girls [the prostitutes on the other side of the street] in my clothing.
To get them involved.
I: Oh
IP: So yeah, I am happy that I am actually next to them. And I have a coffee machine here in the corner and yesterday we had a little coffee. So I am happy.
I: So you are just in generally happy to be in this area?
IP: Yes! I have lived in Camden where there is this flea market, do you know this? So for me this is just an enormous thing, so different. With both prostitutes.. And creative people.
I: So do you like this combination of prostitution and maybe more rough activities and the fashions shops?
IP: Yes, I like this fusions of.. from really hardcore to yeah, and there are creepy men.
I: Have you had any troubles – I mean, because there is a lot of men in this area?
IP: In the evening yeah, but I am only open until 8 and Thursdays until 9
I: Yeah
IP: And sometimes they stand out in front and I ask them to move, and most of the times they are happy to that.
I: So you feel safe in the area?
IP: Yes, I feel safe. Especially because I met the owners of the girls [there are prostitutes next door], a really old man, and the girls are quite legit so. Yeah. And they said that they would keep an eye on me and my shop here. So I will let them know if I see anything as well.
I: Ah, that is fine.
IP: So it is like this little neighborhood watch.
I: So you are kind of looking after each other?
IP: Yeah. Yeah. That works really well.
I: Do you have any kind of security systems or?
IP: I have a camera in here. An outside we have some light, and that is nice – because it is really, really dark between the houses in the evenings. But I am not really worried. I mean.
But I also live just next to. So every once and a while I just stick my head out and check.
Hehe.
I: Okay, hehe. Are there a lot of policing in the area, or cameras or?
IP: Yes, there are five cameras on this side [points toward the narrow street where he have prostitutes as neighbors] and that is quite fine because I have five windows. And sometimes there are some drugs dealers outside doing their stuff. I could do something, but I do not want to do that. I think they should do what they are doing. But sometimes they are blocking the view and the entrance - just hanging out – so people cannot see my shop. So then I just go out there pretending that I am on the phone, standing on the stairs, talking really loud and that usually helps. Then they will leave.
I: Hehe
IP: Yes, that is a nice little trick I have learned. Hehe. So this interview, say again what was the research about?
I: It is just because a lot of interesting things and changes are happening in this area from both an urban planning perspective and –
IP: So are you for it or against it?
I: I think it is kind of a mixture because some of the same things – I am from Copenhagen – have happened in the meatpacking district, not exactly the same; not because there were a lot of prostitutes, but because old job types, butchers and stuff like that, and now there is also a lot of creative people and there have been some clashes and.. So it seems similar. And maybe it is a more worldwide thing that is going on.
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Red Light District
IP: Yeah. There are really some people there is against it. When I got this place I think there were 30 people wanted it, and one of them were actually a big coffee company – which I do not want to mention – they were the clients. But they [the local government] were like, that is not our intention for the area. The stores also create the essence of the red light district. The stores also have something to offer…When I first came to Amsterdam -
I: Mmh.
IP: - I was really chocked when I got here to red light district, because I had never been here before, but now I just love it.
I: Yeah, you maybe just got used to it?
IP: Yeah yeah. I think so..
I: I think I am about to have all the answers to me questions. Unless you have anything to add?
IP: So. Hmm. Not really.
I: But thank so much.
IP: My pleasure. Hope you can use it.
I: I am sure that I can. Thank you a lot.
IP: You are welcome.
I: Have a really nice day
IP: Yeah, you too
I: Bye
IP: Bye bye
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Fashion designer (37), Female
(I did not get the briefing on tape, so that is why I have not transcribed it)
I: Can I ask you about your name?
IP: XX
I: Okay
IP: I am a fashion designer
I: Fashion designer, yeah. And your age?
IP: I am 37
I: Yeah. And for how long have you had a shop here?
IP: Since September 2012. So not so long.
I: Okay. Do you know what were in these rooms before?
IP: No, we [her and her design partner] would like to know, but. You can see it in the register.
The eh, what do you call it?
I: The papers about the history of the building?
IP: Yeah. But we did not do it yet, but we think it had to be a shop as well because of the windows. So it looks like that there have been a shop before. We just do not know what, but we know that this area was textile related.
I: Okay.
IP: All the way, long time ago, so.
I: So you do not think that it have been anything about prostitution?
IP: No, we do not think so.
I: Okay.
IP: We are not sure yet, but we do not think so. I think this whole street was not [prostitution].
Only the last part.
I: Yeah. Is there a specific reason to why you chose to have your shop here?
IP: I do this together with XX [name of the partner] she is a fashion bag designer, it started off as a friend of ours went to the city of Amsterdam to ask about this area because of the project called 1012.
I: Yes.
IP: And a friend of us told us that this would be really good for us. So we went to the city as well and we got… The city chooses the persons to come in this area, so we went there and we were one of the couples that got chosen -
I: Yeah.
IP: - to get a shop here. But this is not only shops this part here. Here are also studios for artist so
I: Actually we are also focusing on this 1012 plan in our research
IP: Okay interesting. Okay, so it was not like we were searching for a studio together me and xx [her partner] this just came to us and we were really excited to be in the center. And we think in a year or two there will be a lot more nice shops here.
I: So you think that it will go in the direction of more designers and…
IP: Yeah, but I think that there will still be a balance between the prostitution part and the creative part and I think that is okay too. I think that it should be a balance and not that the prostitution should disappear totally
I: So you think that it is fine that there is prostitution as well?
IP: Yeah, I do not see it as a problem. No, no.
I: Maybe it is even a good thing for you shop – or?
IP: Yeah, I mean, you get a lot of tourist here of course, but you get a lot of creepy men as well. So.. I think it is difficult and it is too early for us to know, we only been here for some
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Red Light District months now so it is really difficult to say something about that now. But maybe for the tourist part yeah I think so. But it is not only the prostitution that attracts people it is also the architecture because this is really the oldest part of Amsterdam so a lot of guided tours get here as well.
I: So you said there are some creepy men once in a while, so do you feel like it is unsafe to be in the area sometimes?
IP: No. No. No. Not until now no. But I have travelled a lot, and I have been a lot of creepy places, but for a lot of other people it is different. And I know that our neighbor – did you talk to her?
I: No.
IP: She would be good for you. Her mother was in textile as well and she worked in this area and she grew up in this area. She would be a good.. I think she comes at two o’clock.
I: Actually I think I saw her in there [her shop] as I passed by.
IP: A little bit bigger and with blond hair.
I: Yes.
IP: I think if she says yes you will get a lot of good stories of her. It always have been textile in this part and I think that it is maybe nice to leave it that way since it always been this kind of strange connection. I do not know why, but..
I: Now you have not been for that long –
IP: No.
I: - but have you been aware of any new changes that have made the area more safe or less safe?
IP: No because I do not know how it was before and I did not come here much. Honestly, I do not even think that I have been in the red light district before [she got her shop here]. No, not that I can recall.
I: Where are you from?
IP: I am from Maastricht, the south of Holland and I live now the Hague. So before when I came to Amsterdam, it was not like ‘oh, I will go to red light district’, no. Off course I knew about it. It was first when it started to become more a design place that I started to come here.
Because it have already been five years that they [the local government] have been working on it [the 1012 plan]. So no, I do not know the difference. I know that there is a lot of police coming to the streets but I think that it have always been like that.
I: Okay.
IP: But I think that she [the neighbor] can tell you more about that.
I: Okay, yeah – I will ask her about that. So there are not any times when you feel unsafe in the area?
IP: No. I do not know. In the beginning when we just opened you had some men that just came in, but that was out of curiosity I think because they are used to only have them hookers here.
I: Yeah.
IP: But no, I did not feel uncomfortable about it.
I: Are you aware of anything other than the policing are there for example a lot of cameras or other things in the area?
IP: I now that we have this round police camera – this eye – we have one here, in the street, and I am glad about that. And we have our own camera in the shop.
I: So you have a little security system yourself?
IP: Yeah. But I think that is important everywhere, it does not matter where – if it is in the red light district or if it is in some other street. I do not know. Maybe there is more security here, and that is why it is also safe, but I do not know. I do not know how it was before
I: No. But you feel safe?
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Red Light District
IP: I feel safe and I think that when there will come more of this kind of shops people who have been usually in this area will get used to it as well. I the beginning when we opened, all of us in the street came at the same time – so it was like ‘whaam’ – a lot of changes. And I think that is why in the beginning a lot of men were curios and also the hookers were curios like ‘what is happening?’And I think now, when it all have settled down.. Because in the beginning I thought that also the hookers would be offended.
I: Yeah.
IP: And think that they were going to be pushed away, out of the area, but I do not think so.
Are you going to talk to them as well?
I: No, unfortunately not, even though it could be nice to have both perspectives.
IP: Yeah, it would be nice to know how they feel about it.
I: Yeah.
IP: But I do not feel any aggression or any kind of.. From them. But I do not know how they feel about it. I do not even know if they [the local government] are planning to get rid of all of them, but I do not think so.
I: I do not think so either.
IP: Because here [in the shop] I do not think that there were prostitutes. It has always been two kinds, a mixture..
I: Okay, but I think that we can stop here.
IP: Okay.
I: But thank you so much for participating and telling your story.
IP: No problem. You are very welcome. Also, I do not know if you went to xx [name of the shop] the art book shop.
I: No.
IP: They are here like we are.
I: Is it just down the street here?
IP: Yes, we are all on the right side. I do not know which number but they are an art book shop. I think that they are like us. I do not think that they came here often before they got their space. But they are in front of hookers, so for them the connection is much more.. Because we are in the part where there are no hookers so we do not get the interaction so much, so I think it would be nice to talk with them too because when they for example had their opening there were a lot of people and sometime the hookers got angry because they [the people] were blocking the view. So they have a lot of other information for you to write about.
IP: Yeah, thank you so much for that tip. I will definitely go there. But thank you, and have a really nice day.
I: Yes, you too. Thank you.
IP: Bye
I: Bye
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Fashion designer (21), Female
I: So just to give a short introduction on the project I’m working on. I’m a student of the Free
University of Amsterdam and we are doing a research on safety in the Red Light District. Just to learn a bit more about the safety in this area and the changes that have been made. Could you give me a short introduction about yourself. First of all what is your name?
IP: My name is XXX
I: How old are you?
IP: I’m 21 years old.
I: Where are we now?
IP: We are at Rambler at the Zeedijk 54 right now, which is a place that works with children who struggle with multiple questions in their lives. At Rambler children can help us with making the clothes, and we help them with questions they are having with fulfilling their lives.
I: What are you doing here?
IP: I’m here for my internship. And next Friday we will have a fashion show with clothes that are designed by the children that come here.
I: That is really cool!
IP: Yeah!
I: Where are you from originally? Are you from Amsterdam or are you from somewhere else?
IP: No, I live in South Holland, but originally I’m from England and I came here when I was eighteen years old.
I: Ok. So you are working for a fashion designer in the city centre right?
IP: Yeah, well actually we are trying to be a label, but we work together with Dutch charity.
But we like a combination between the two, we really want to help the children by resolving their questions, about work, school and stuff like that. But we also design clothes with them and afterwards we give them the opportunity to show their clothes at a fashion show.
I: That is really nice. Do you know why the label decided to have their shop here on the
Zeedijk.
IP: Yes, because it is really close to all the youth. It is a very popular street, everybody know it and it is right near the city centre. So it is easy to reach for everybody. It is easy to reach, people will come, but if they have to do a lot of travel to get there, they won’t come.
I: Have you been here for long? Has the shop been here for a long time?
IP: It has been here for 2 years now.
I: So it is kind of new
IP: Yes it is some sort of new, but we are getting it where we want it to be.
I: Do you know what was in this shop before you came here?
IP: No I don’t actually, I believe… No I don’t know.
I: Do you know that this area of Amsterdam is known for its prostitution?
IP: Yeah, it was a really bad street before.
I: Okay. Prostitution was quite big in this area, do you think that this shop could have been a room for prostitutions? Because you have the big windows in front of the shop? Could it be possible that prostitutions where here?
IP: Well, it could have been possible, but then it would be really a couple of years ago. Not really recent, because it is not like small windows, it is a big window. And prostitutions is behind smaller windows and just a little where they can do the thing and then go. I think that it was a café or something like that/
I: Okey. So now I’m going to ask you some questions about your perceived safety in this area.
So do you feel unsafe in this area? Or are there any differences between day and night? If you feel safer or less safe?
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Red Light District
IP: No to be really honest with you I feel very safe here. I know a lot of people that live here in the street. So it makes you feel safe. The street is really flowering, a lot of shops are coming here, which is good for the environment and for the street view. So I don’t think that.
I think that it is a lot more safe. Besides that, on the Newmarket, which is two minutes away, there is a police station. So if anything happens, the police is there in like one minute. So that is also something that makes you feel more safe.
I: So there has never been a time that you felt unsafe in this area or that you have experienced any activity that made you feel unsafe?
IP: Well no, the only time that I felt a little bit unsafe, is during football matches, because all the football hooligans are at the Newmarket. Than you see a lot of screaming, shouting and fighting. But to be totally honest, the police is handling it really really well, because they just surround the people who are football hooligans and who are fighting. They let them fight for a while, because when you interrupt them, it is going to be worse. With this they make sure that the football hooligans can’t hurt the people around the people who do not want to be involved.
I: Does the police make you feel more safe?
IP: Yes
I: Can you mention some specific changes or activities that supported the safety in this area?
IP: First of all, there was a lot of violence here in the cafes between people and there were a lot of gun fights and a lot of prostitution like what you sad. But a lot of it is gone, it has moved to another area of the city, where it is monitored really well. So I think that helped with the environment over here. So I think that it is really good that they did that. And there were a lot of junkies over here and what they did. There was a guy with friend, they were done with the junkies and everybody who were making the area unsafe. One day they just start fighting with them and start making them go away. Since then, there are still some junkies here, but they don’t mess with you. They are in their own world and they don’t talk with you.
I: Okay. So are you aware of some changes in the area, like the 1012plan?
IP: No I’m not.
I: Put shortly, it is known for the reduction of crime in this area. Specifically like in the areas of the Red Light District. The project means that some of the prostitution is replaced by fashion designers, like you, or artists or other cultural things. To change the view of the streets. What do you think of this programme?
IP: I think that is a very good programme. On one hand, because it gives you another perspective of the street and it is also good, because there will be a more positive vibe within the street. And people will notice that and will come to the street. People will be more positive and will come more to this area. But what I do think is that, I don’t know if they did it, because they wanted to protect the prostitutes from being forced to do it. Because then I don’t think the project will work by just replacing them with fashion designers. But I think that is good that some of the replaced by fashion designers to create a more positive vibe on the street and the view.
I: Do you think that this area will go more in the direction of designers or do you think maybe prostitution will make a way back?
IP: I think that there will be more fashion designers and shops. You see a lot of new shops coming. I think that the street is getting a whole more positive vibe.
I: Okay, but do you also think that maybe prostitution is a good thing for Amsterdam? Is it good for Amsterdam to have it?
IP: I don’t know if it is a good thing, but I’m not against it, because I think that if you completely shut it off the street it will be much harder to monitor it and to see what happens.
It is not gonna stop if you don’t see it anymore. It will probably get more worse and into the illegal area. Because prostitutes will get forced and will be treated badly and abused. So I
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Red Light District think it is good that there are a few that are monitored by the police and the people around them.
I: Do you think that the tourists, which are attracted by the prostitutions, are good for you shop?
IP: Yeah, because if I look at the shop, most of the time people that are coming in, are tourists from young to old. Everybody wants to know what we are doing. What I think is that tourists are probably more likely to go into a shop they don’t know, then the people who are living here, because they think well I don’t know the shop so I’m not going in. while tourists don’t know anything, they walk in and ask what you are doing, that is easier for them.
I: Do you have any use of security cameras in your shop?
IP: To be honest, we don’t. but we do have a rule that you have to be with two people at least.
But that is mostly because of the youth that are upstairs. We don’t have a lot of money here.
The only thing of value here are the computers. So we don’t have security cameras.
I: Does that make you feel unsafe sometimes, maybe when certain people come in?
IP: Well no, actually not. Sometimes there is like a weirdo coming in. but most of the times you just talk to them to push them outside. They usually go themselves and if they don’t go we know all the people outside. So if we really have a problem we can always go there and they will help us. And that is vice versa.
I: So people across the street contribute to your feeling of safety?
IP: Yeah, let me call it a sort of community, we help each other.
I: And do you know if there are any security camera’s in this area?
IP: Yes they are definitely here.
I: Does that make you feel safer when you walk the streets at night?
IP: Well I don’t really feel unsafe pretty soon, so it has to be something really scary if it makes me feel unsafe. More general I think that people will feel safe when they know that there are cameras on the street.
I: Okay, good. Well that’s it. Thank you very much for your time.
IP: Well thank you.
I: Bye
IP: Bye
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Red Light District
Police officer (59) , Male
I: I’m a student from the Free University of Amsterdam and I’m doing a little research about the perceived safety in the Red Light District. On the basis of this I would like to ask you some questions.
First of all I would like to know your name.
IP: My name is XXX
I: What is your age?
IP: I’m 59 years old.
I: What is your profession?
IP: At the moment I already work 26 years for the police and this district team, more specific
I’m working in the Red Light District
I: Are you or Dutch origin?
IP: Yes I’m.
I: Well you are working for the police. What is your specific task?
IP: I’m a brigadier. As a brigadier I have different tasks. I’m responsible for the streets and sometimes I’m chef and then I tell other people what to do. Within this I have responsibility for the hospitality. Thereby I’m responsible for the taxi’s which cause a lot of trouble and at the moment I’m in consultation with the municipality in terms of the bicycle taxis.
I: Are there any specific reasons why you have chosen this profession?
IP: Well I was unemployed, I had to apply and I got the job.
I: That is really good.
IP: Yes, it is really nice. I’m a born and bred Amsterdammer. My parents have had a café at the Zeedijk. I live, as the only one of this team, in the area, I live at the Nieuwezijds
Voorburgwal. The neighbourhood is very social. So I can not only speak about this area as a police officer, but also as a citizen. People have certain ideas about the area, whereby unsafety is put in front, while this actually much less than one would expect.
I: How do you experience this yourself? Do you have feelings of unsafety?
IP: I experience this neighbourhood as the most safe area of the whole Netherlands.
I: And why?
IP: As a resident and as a police officer I feel safe. People mostly look at figures, but in my opinion they may not lead. It is true that there are some robberies and pickpockets. A lot of things are happening here, but not extremely more than at other places.
I: Okay.
IP: That is also due to a form of registration. There are a lot of consumer disputes, mostly between customers and prostitutes, and there are a lot of disagreements between people.
Which are written off, by the police, as violence. They give a higher pressure on the violence figures at this area, while they are actually not real violence. We are looking for another method to register these disputes, disagreements and quarrels. For example, we have the
Molensteeg, which is a small street, where there is most of the time no violence. But due to the disputes, disagreements and quarrels, the Molensteeg came up as a really violence place.
I: Yes.
IP: So that are things we have to keep in mind. It is also true that figures are not written off to the amount of visitors of this area. If you compare the number of violence against the number of visitors, the figures are not that high. During a nice summer day, it is possible to count, within 24 hours, more then 10,000 people. If you compare the violence numbers with the number of people visiting this area, the figures will be much less and you could even say that this is a very safe area. The change of being a victim of violence if much less than in other parts of the Netherlands
I: Are you now speaking about the tourists or also about the local people?
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Red Light District
IP: The locals are already less affected by violence. Tourists are a little bit more affected by the violence, because they are recognizable as a tourist.
I: Yes.
IP: Besides that, we have a lot of tourists who are coming here thinking that everything is possible and allowed.
I: Yes, I understand it.
IP: If you are not active in the criminal world, you are less affected by violence. In this area there are some people which are trying to offer illegal merchandise. Those are mostly fake drugs.
There are also some people, for example from England, coming here to use stuff like cocaine.
Their thoughts can be really bad. For example, last year I stood at the Dam, in my uniform and two English guys asked me where they could buy cocaine. What happens, a lot of tourists want to use cocaine, some tourists think that everything is possible in allowed in Amsterdam.
They are asked to buy it, they are taking to a narrow alley and robbed. But when you are not looking for drugs, you will never be in such a situation.
I: Yes, could you tell me a little bit more about this?
IP: It has also something to do with the appearance of people, looking at people which are victims of a robbery of violence, are mostly not people who speak up. By saying, he you fuck off, your appearance is a lot stronger, then just standing still and looking at what is happening.
For example, not so long ago, there were some Chinese tourist standing at Central Station with their wallets in their hands. Then another guy came and took their wallets. The Chinese couple was just looking at the guy, they didn’t shout or scream, they just let it happen. So some of them are just victim by being a tourist and the way they look.
I: Is it this specific area, where there is more trade in drugs?
IP: Not specific in drugs, those fake drug sellers, are going to places where a lot of people and tourists are. You will find them at places where it is crowded and where they can sell the drugs, you will not find them in the West side of Amsterdam. They are at the Ouwezijds
Voorburgwal, Ouwezijds Achterbrugwal, Nieuwezijds voorburgwal, Nieuwezijds
Achterburgwal, Damrak.
I: Do you know how the situation was some years ago?
IP: Comparing it to the 80’s, it was a No-Go area, you couldn’t walk through the streets without being robbed. Nowadays this situation doesn’t exist anymore.
I: Can you tell me in what this difference can be seen?
IP: The difference it that before the 80’s we had a neighbourhood where nobody looked after.
The municipality thought that it was good, that there was only one area where the drugs were sold. There we no investors and the original investors were slowly leaving. That resulted in a form of ghetto, where drugs was sold. Things changed, when there was a jointly agreement. A policy was made by the municipality, the police and the big investors. Big investors, build the
Barbizon hotel and the NV Zeedijk bought up all the houses, renovated them and sold them.
With help of the police, the area became a more safe one.
I: Are you familiar with the 1012 plan?
IP: In the buildings of the Red Light District there was a lot of money, which was gained by criminal activities. Later on little shops came in, they were looking for the tourists. Their way of making money was very doubtful, because if you know what the rent of the building is and you know what they sell, it is impossible that they make their money only by selling souvenirs. The idea of 1012 was to move this kind of activities out.
I: Was it the intention to move prostitutions out and put artists or fashion designers in?
IP: No, this are two different things. The municipality promoted the fashion designers, they wanted to move out the prostitutions and to make temporary facilities for young fashion designers. You can see this more as a form of anti-cracking. In the future, with the 1012 plan,
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Red Light District they want to reduce the number of coffee shops and prostitutions.
I: Do they really want to reduce the prostitution and coffee shops?
IP: Yes, with the plan, they want to upgrade the neighbourhood. Now it is a little bit degenerate, because of the small tourist shops, prostitutions and coffee shops. They want to regulate this. A nice example is the new restaurant Anna, at the Oude Kerksplein, which is a really luxury restaurant, with different public. At Oude Kerksplein they closed some brothels and a radio studio moved in.
There are some tendencies to upgrade the shopping area.
I: So there is a real difference between now and the earlier days.
IP: Yes, there is.
I: Is this because there are more police and camera’s on the street?
IP: No, there is now less police on the street. In the 80’s, in the Warmoesstraat, there were around 150 policemen on the street. The camera’s do not make a real difference in the perceived feeling of safety.
For us there are a lot of positive things, with camera’s we can prevent a lot of things. In the beginning a lot of people were against it. People thought that their privacy would be breached, but afterwards, they saw that areas with cameras were more safe then areas which were without them. With the cameras we can also see what kind of violence is happening. With this we can prevent unnecessary use of police officers.
I: What would you say about the safety yourself?
IP: The area is very safe, houses are sold for high prices, which couldn’t be asked if the area was not safe or not good.
I: Do you think that the prostitution has a good influence on Amsterdam?
IP: A lot of people forget that there are a lot of financial benefits obtained by the Red Light
District. Everybody has another view about prostitution. For example, a prostitute coming from Hungary, where she has to work really hard and often is forced to work. When she comes to the Netherlands, she gets more money for the work she does and she is not forced to do it. But she is a form of people trafficking, because other people have benefits by having her here. While for her the situation is better.
I: Looking at the future, what would you suggest that there will be, more prostitutions or more artists?
IP: You should never banish prostitutions, it is good for the economy and it is an attraction for tourists. There are a lot of people who are coming to this area to look at the prostitution. In my opinion this shouldn’t be the only reason, you have to give it an upgrade, with more diverse activities.
I: Can you give an example?
IP: Oudezijds Voorburgwal has the museum ‘Onze Lieve Heer Op Zolder’, which is attracting. The area should be mixed, now we see that the area is mostly attracted by tourists, because of the coffee shops, prostitutions etc. Tourists think that everything is allowed and possible, which is not a good thing.
I: Are you in favour of bringing down the amount of coffee shops, prostitutions etc
IP: Yes I’m in favour, we have to try to make this area better, by nice shops and boutiques.
The municipality has adapted the destination plan, they want to banish new organizations that do things that already exist in this area. They want new things and new shops in the area. The municipality want to clean the area, they want to remove the prostitutions from the Sint
Annakwartier. I do not think that this is an good idea, because who wants to have this place?
And there is not so much nuisance over here. In principle, they only want prostitution at the
Oudezijds Achterburgwal and the adjacent lanes.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 13/01/2013
Time 15.50-16.45
Place: Oudezijds voorburgwal/Oudekennissteeg/Oudekerksburg
Date: 17/01/2013
Time: 13.00
Place: The street of Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Date: 17/01/2013, time: 13.00-14.00.
Location: Around Oude Kerk
Date: 18/01/2013
Time 22.30-23.00
Place: At Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal
Date: 20/01/2013
Time: 14.40-15.35
Location: The corner of Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Molensteeg
Date: 21/01/ 2012
Time: 17.00
Place: Street that leads to Oude Kerk
Date: 21/01/2013
Time: 17.30
Place: Warmoesstraat
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 10.00 – 11.00
Location: Around Nieuwmarkt
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 11.00-11.30
Location: Zeedijk
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 14.00-14.30
Location: Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Date: Tuesday the 22/01/2013
Time: 16.00-17.00
Location: Barndesteeg and Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 17.40-18.40
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82
84
87
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Place: Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Outside ‘Red Light District Souvenirs’ + ‘Casa Rosso’.
Date: 23/01/2013 102
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Time: Unknown
Place: Bloedstraat
Date: Thursday 24/01/2013
Time: 19.30-20.30
Place: Sint Annendwarsstraat outside ‘Smartzone’
Urban Struggle
Red Light District
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 13/01/2013
Time 15.50-16.45
Place: Oudezijds voorburgwal/Oudekennissteeg/Oudekerksburg
Location:
I was standing in the cross of Oudezijds voorburgwal and Oudekennissteeg, the former is one of the main streets of the Red light district. The Oudekerksburg is the bridge to Oudekerk. I chose this spot for observation because I had a good overview over the flow of people. I also wanted to be close to the police station at Warmoesstraat 44-50 and decided to stand there when I saw two police men walking by.
Physical space
Area:
The Oudezijds voorburgwal is a long street with a many coffee shops and prostitutes. The
Bulldog hotel and coffee shop is located at the opposite side of the canal from my spot. Along the street there are several hotels, but a only a few sex shows. Oudekennissteeg is a narrow street that connect Oudezijds voorburgwal and Oudezijds Achterburgwal, the two streets I would say are the main streets in Red light. A bar is located in the corner of Oudezijds voorburgwal and Oudekennissteeg. Oudekennissteeg is a typical characteristic “Red light street”, with prostitutes almost along the whole street. The street is very short, approximately
100 meters.
From my observation spot I do not see any designer stores or art galleries.
The buildings:
The bar in the corner seams to be a regular Dutch bar, with no specific theme. It was empty during my observation, from what I could see at least. The Oudekerk is a very magnificent building, since it is very big. It gives the area some character. The buildings at the
Oudekennissteeg was very typical Dutch, built in brown brick. The houses at the larger
Oudezijds voorburgwal looked more luxurious to me.
Environment:
The weather was clear and sunny. It was very cold though, around minus six or seven degrees.
It was very slippery at the street so both cars and pedestrians had trouble getting around. It was in the middle of the day, so it was quiet except for the church bells that ringed for more than 30 minutes. It was not windy. The ice begun to recede and the canal was full of swans and other birds.
The weather was the main reason why I wanted to be there at that time, since it was very snowy and windy when I was in Red light district earlier. I wanted to see how much the weather affected the flow of people in january.
Prostitutes:
In total there was twenty windows along the very short Oudekennissteeg, but when I arrived just before 4pm only five was open. The girls was wearing nothing but underwear and most of them looked bored. A few girls was writing on their phones, while others talked to each other or tried to get the attention from the men in the street by flirting and smiling. All women looked very young.
At the Oudezijds voorburgwal I only saw one women in a window, the one next to her was closed. She looked terrible bored and was from the window away several times.
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Red Light District
Half an hour later eight windows was open at Oudezijds voorburgwal, so I guess they were getting ready for rush hour.
Security:
The first thing I saw from my observation point was two male police officers strolling around, from the smaller Oudekennissteeg in direction of Oudekerk. 20 minutes later I saw two more policemen, a female and a male one this time.
In the corner of Oudezijds voorburgwal and Oudekennissteeg a “sweeping” security camera is placed, with the Dutch police logo on it. It is the only camera I could see in this corner. There where no cameras at Oudekennissteeg.
I was really trying to see if there was any more cops in the neighborhood, but I did not see anyone else.
Actors:
Mostly young guys in groups, but also quite many older couples. Quite many women was walking around in the area with their men. Most of the tourist groups was walking from
Oudekerk in the direction of the Red light district. Several of the pedestrians made a short stop at the bridge and took photographs of themselves with the canal and church in the background.
Most of the pedestrians looked like tourists – which I base on that they had a large system cameras, was wearing Amsterdam knitted hats, was moving in groups and looked confused, since they did not knew exactly where they where going. Most of the young guys in groups was not dressed very stylish or luxury from what I could see.
But there was not only tourists. There are quite many lonely people, mostly guys actually, walking or cycling by. But I think it was a bit to early to catch the locals living there, since the time was just before 4pm. Which means that those who works office hours had not finished there day yet. Although I saw a young man that walked by was carrying fully packed plastics bags from Albert Heijn, which could mean that he was living close by if he did his groceries.
Or maybe he was just working in the neighborhood.
They different actors did not really interact with each other, except for a few times. A women in a car gets cord and can not make it around the corner of Oudezijds voorburgwal and
Oudekerksburg, and a group of young men are helping her out immediately. They are pushing and pushing until she can continue driving. But she never stops the car to say thank you and they just keep on walking.
Another time a women was shouting out on the street from the bar at the corner. A person out in the street answered and got in to the bar. The women might have been working in the bar or if not she was their only guest.
During my whole observation I did not saw anyone go into any of the women. Although the groups of guys walked very slow and starred at the women when they passed by. I although saw one man leaving the women at Oudezijds voorburgwal, but I did not saw how long time he was there or if he was working there or not.
I also think some of the groups in the streets could have been Dutch high school students, since they looked a bit too young to be tourists.
My favorite part of the observation was two short men that came walking on Oudezijds voorburgwal and turned right into Oudekennissteeg. They was bald and was wearing leather
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Red Light District wests with the Hells Angels logo and California on the back. I remember that I wished everyone in the street was so easy to identify with a home area and hobbies. I followed them, they slowed down outside the prostitutes. But they did not go in and walked into a rock club in another street instead.
My presence:
Since it was that early in the day no one really noticed me when I was standing at the bridge or next to the canal across the street from the corner. One man asked me if I could take a few pictures of him on the bridge with the church and the canal as background. I agreed and took a few pictures of him. Another man asked me something, but I did not hear him since I was looking in another direction at the time and I also had my headphones in since I was talking to myself to the recorder device in my phone. I was talking in Swedish and I could not hear anyone else speak Swedish, so I do not think anyone actually understood what I was doing.
During the first half hour I was writing in my notepad, but no one really took any notice of me then either. I was walking the Oudekennissteeg back and forth a couple of times, but I found it hard to take any closer look at the girls in the windows because I felt very uncomfortable when I tried to. It felt rude.
I also accidentally bumped into a random man, but he only laughed at me when I apologized.
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Urban Struggle
Date: 17/01/2013
Time: 13.00
Place: The street of Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Red Light District
I'm in the center of the Red Light District at the street called Oujdezijds Achterburgwal which is placed by one of the channels in the heart of the area. It is one of the older areas of the city with narrow streets laid with cobbles, the channel floating through, bridges crossing the channels and old narrow houses on both side of the channel. However, the street itself mostly consist of sex shops, sex-cinemas, bars and window-brothels. It seems mostly like a tourist street, since most of the buildings are being occupied by the sex-shops and window-brothels, however it seems like many of the upstairs parts of the buildings are used for normal renting, where people are living. Many of the shops have big signs on the front with writing in neon, pink or red.
The street is very quiet at this time of day and it seems as if some of the cinemas and bars are just starting to open up, while some of them are still closed. Most of the window-brothels have their curtains drawn. There are pretty empty in the streets as well. It is a cold day, there's snow on the ground and it's a couple of minus degrees outside, people are wearing big jackets, gloves and hats. I can hear seagulls screaming, a churchbell ringing in the distance and the quiet talk of people passing by. There are no cars here, almost everyone is walking and most of the people with bikes are dragging them instead of driving. The street are also very narrow, with the channel on one side and buildings, and staircases of buildings, on the other. On my left hand there's a little bridge crossing the channel, here two construction-workers are working, making improvements on the bridge, they don't really talk, just work side by side, two meters away three other construction-workers are having a break, all three smoking a cigarette, talking together. People frequently pass me by, but the streets are by no means crowded. Most of the people are walking in groups. Most of the women I see in the street are walking with, what seems to be, their boyfriends. Besides that most of the people in the street are men, most of them in their twenties or thirties. Many of these men are walking in groups of 2-4 people. On the other hand I see very few children and old people. The only children I see are passing by with their whole family and seem like tourists, walking with backpacks, and looking curious around in the streets. In general there are many of the people in the streets who seem like tourists, taking pictures of the old houses and the channel and looking a lot around them when they walk, laughing and pointing at the pictures in the windows of the sexshops and cinemas. A young couple in front of me make a halt, he takes a picture of her by the waterside and they continue slowly down the street. In general many of the people
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Red Light District passing by in groups seem relaxed, they don't seem like they're in a hurry, chatting to each other, while the persons walking alone walk faster and seem more like they're passing the area to go somewhere.
On the other side of the channel two middle-aged couples are passing by, they also seem very relaxed, they're stopping at many of the windows of the sex-shops, laughing and making jokes at what they see and one of the men take a picture of the two ladies in front of a sex-cinema.
They laugh again and continue down the street.
I cross the bridge in order to get a look at the other side of the street. Here I see a big sexcinema just across the channel from where I stand. It looks like it's just about to open. A man in his thirties, working in the cinema, are caring out two gold-statuettes which he places in front of the cinema. While he's placing them another man, around same age, walk towards him and yell something as a greeting. He's caring a sort of tray with cans, maybe trying to sell something, but it seems as if they know each other. None of them seem really busy, they both light up a cigarette and talk for a couple of minutes and then the guy with the tray continues down the street and the other guy goes back into the cinema. Right next to the cinema there's three window-brothels. In two of them the curtains are drawn but in the last one there's a darkhaired young women in a pink bikini, moving her body slowly around in the window. A young guy pass the window, looking and smiling at the women. Shortly afterwards an older man, walking down the street, goes directly towards her window. She opens the door, they have a short chat, she laughs at something he says and afterwards lets him in, closes the door behind them and drawn the curtain.
Besides the interaction between prostitutes and customers, there's not really any spontaneous interaction between the people in the streets. Everyone is just talking to each other if they walk in groups or looking straight ahead or in to the ground if they're walking alone.
Three young guys pass by on the other side of the streets, two of them are drinking cokes, they make a stop at a two-storey sex-shop/sex-cinema. They laugh and chat to each other while watching the pictures and sex-toys in the window-sill. After standing outside for a little while they all go in. In general many of the groups, and especially the groups of tourists, pays a lot of interest to the surroundings, looking at the shops they pass by, talking and laughing, whereas the people walking alone mostly pass by without giving the shops and windows much attention.
Two young girls are passing by on the other side of the channel, they're holding a map in their hands. They stop up for a moment and look at the map together, pointing first straight ahead and then to the right, talking together and end up taking a right turn down one of the side
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Red Light District streets. On the next bridge, after the where the construction-workers are occupied a young women comes with a chair in one hand and a harmonica in the other. She places her chair on the side street on the bridge, and a little bowl on the ground before her on the bridge and starts playing the harmonica. She is wrapped up in winter clothing, wears a big hat and a thick jacket. She smiles and try to get the attention of the people passing by her, but most of the people passing by don't really look at her and just continues over the bridge. A middle aged couple pass by me. The woman is walking with a little white dog in a wire. She's walking a little bit in front of the man. The man stops up, he's holding a camera in his hand and calls at the woman, making her stop up and he takes a picture of her with the dog on the channel street.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 17/01/2013,
Time: 13.00-14.00.
Location: Around Oude Kerk
Location
I was primarily in the area around Oude Kerk; the Oudekerksplein and some of the streets around it; Sint Annenstraat, Warmoesstraat and Oudezijds Voorburgwal, but not that much. I was mainly in the ‘square’ created between Sint Annenstraat, Warmoesstraat, Oudezijds
Voorburgwal and Oudekerksplein (‘behind’ the church when you stand at Sint Annenstraat with face toward the church). I chose that spot because I think it is an interesting area because of the mix of prostitutes, art galleries and then the old church.
Physical space
The area
The area is characterized by its great mixture of art galleries, designers and book-shops on one hand and prostitutes and small weird touristic shops on the other hand. On top of that there are some coffee shops and sex-shops. It is a very central area, a few hundred meters from Dam square and thereby it is easy to go there. There are a lot of really small, narrow streets around the church. Streets that are not more than a few meters wide. Sint Annenstraat is quite narrow, while Warmoesstraat and Oudezijds Voorburgwal are a lot wider, especially
Oudezijds Voorburgwal which also has a canal in the middle and enough space for cars, bikes and walking people. There are a few trees without leaves around the canal and a small bridge which leads to the other side. I did not really spend time at Warmoesstraat.
The environment
The day I choose to do the observation was a very cold day; it was about minus five degrees
Celsius, but luckily it was not rainy or windy. It was relatively cloudy, but still a bright day.
There was snow on the street, but not much. The snow that was there was dark brown and made the streets very slippery. You could see people’s breath because of the cold.
Public space
The area around Oude Kerk is public, as well as the streets, but otherwise there are a lot of semi-public spaces, for example the coffee shops, boutiques and the church. There are also private spaces such as houses used for housing. People use the streets and the square to get from one place to another.
The church
The church – Oude Kerk – is placed centrally on Oudekerksplein. It has a gothic design and is quite big. It is made out of reddish bricks, has a black roof and very big, beautifully decorated windows. In front of it is a statue called Belle with the inscription; "Respect sex workers all over the world." It represents a woman with big breasts and high heels standing in a square at the end of some stairs. It is black and grey and the inscription plate is golden. In front of the church is also a relief representing a hand touching a breast. It is very well integrated in the ground – and can easily be passed by without noticing. The colour is bronze.
The houses
The houses around the church are a mixture of old, original houses and a building which seems newer – or otherwise the façade has been renovated. The old houses are narrow, crooked and kept in reddish, dark and brown colours. A lot of the window frames are white.
The newer looking building looks more like some kind of social housing; it is a big house
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Red Light District
(compared to the old, crooked ones) and the facade is very monotone with the same windows and balconies in the entire building.
The colours are very discrete and mostly reddish-brown; the only ‘colour-outburst’ is a little bit of graffiti next to the church with some yellow, pink and purple colours.
The prostitutes
The prostitutes are spread around the church and the nearby streets. They are standing in their windows smiling and gesticulating to the people passing by, or just chatting with each other.
Most of them are young and are only wearing underwear. There are not that many of them on the Sint Annenstraat, there are mainly shops – but there are a few.
The shops
The shops are a mix of cafés, artist galleries, a bar, clothes designers, a record shop, a shawarma shop, a bookshop and coffee shops.
The more creative boutiques such as the galleries, the bookstore and the clothes designer were all designed in a very minimalistic design. They blended discretely into the otherwise reddishbrown environment. It was easy to see that something artistic was at stake: their clothes etc. were consciously placed in the windows out to the street and the shop name was written somewhere on the facade or window.
The coffee shops
Just in front of the church is the coffee shop ‘The Old Church’. It has a extension made out of white tree and glass. Above it is a sign made of neon light in primarily red and blue colours.
This is one of the most colourful in this area. In front of it there is a bench.
On Oudezijds Voorburgwal there is a coffee shop called ‘The Bulldog’ it seems quite big. The logo is a yellow bulldog which looks angry and is wearing a red spike collar. ‘THE
BULLDOG” is written above it and “THE FIRST COFFEESHOP” is written underneath.
Safety
There are quite a few security cameras in the area: both big, grey cameras (more old fashioned) and some newer, round ‘eye’ cameras. On some of the walls there are stickers saying that there are cameras in the area and that they record what is going on. I did not see anything suspicious or any activities that seemed dangerous or criminal.
Actors
In general there were not a lot of people. I think this was because it was a week day and it was between 13:00 and 14:00. In total I may have seen 50 people. Some of them were just passing by, others were sitting in cafés, some were just strolling around and others were at work in their shops or windows.
There were almost only men in the area. Men in all age groups: young adults, men around 30-
40 years and older men. I did not see any children and I only saw very few women. A lot of the men were walking in groups of 4 to 6 people they were talking, chatting and looking at the prostitutes. They seemed like tourists. Other men were walking two and two; some of them in silence, others were talking and chatting. Other men were there alone, some of them just walked through the area without stopping and looking up.
Most of them were wearing casual jeans and black jackets. They did not look rich and fancy.
A lot of them – especially the young, had their hands in their pockets. Some of the groups – mainly younger men – where quite noisy, or at least loud. Some of them were walking really close to the windows of the prostitutes. Some of them smiled and waved to the prostitutes – who responded to their gesture. The men sometimes laughed and it seemed like they had fun.
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Red Light District
I did not actually see anybody who went in to a prostitute, or anybody who came out. The men did not seem like they had the intention to get a prostitute – as they were not asking about services or prices (because they were not really interacting with / talking to the prostitutes).
I only saw a few women and only a few couples. The couples I saw seemed like tourists; they were just walking around, looking and talking. One couple was younger and another consisted of quite old people with grey / white hair. They went into an art / gallery shop.
My presence
Since there were primarily men in the area – and men looking for women (prostitutes) – I was quite aware of myself as being female. Especially when a man – around 35 years old, with two gold teeth and a nose-ring approached me by saying ‘Hey, nice shoes’ and then kept talking until he asked me out for coffee. I refused. Since there were not a lot of people in general – maybe because of the time (I think that there are more people during the weekend and in the evenings) I was standing in front of the church – not getting in the way of anybody.
And even though it is an area with a lot of tourists I don’t think it seemed weird to anybody that I was just standing there and walking around a bit.
I noticed that I did not look through the windows when I passed the prostitutes. I do not really know why. Maybe because I think it is disrespectful to stare or maybe because I thought that it would make me feel ashamed – especially because I was not there to buy anything, I was only there to observe.
I felt really safe in the area, no one was acting weird or doing things that seemed criminal. I was left alone – except from that one (a little bit weird man) who spoke me, but he was friendly though.
I think my experience and what I would observe would be radically different at night.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 18/01/2013
Time 22.30-23.00
Place: At Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal
Location and physical surroundings
I was mainly walking up and down of Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal. And primarily in the
‘square’ created by Oude Hoogstraat, Korte Nezell and Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal. I chose that spot because there were a lot of people, a lot of prostitutes and the areas around seemed quite deserted compared to. Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal is a long street split in the middle by a canal. On each side there is walking, biking and driving lane. The houses at Oudezijds
Achtervoorburgwal are old, narrow and crooked. The bricks are mainly brown and reddish, with white window frames.
It was a cold, cloudy and windy night.
Colours and lights
It was in the evening so it was pretty dark. The red lights from the windows are really intense because of the darkness. There are even red lights under the little bridge and it is reflected in the canal. There are light in most of the windows; weather it is shops or bars – it is illuminating the area. Along the canal there are placed street lights, but they are not illuminating a lot. The area is in general pretty dark, but lit up by red and normal ‘yellowish’ coloured light.
A walk from one end of Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal to the other
In the Oude Hoogstraat ’end’ there is a Coffee Company, a modern café chain, and The Hash,
Marihuana and Hemp Museum – where only two persons are, and their commercial car is parked in front. In this end there are not a lot of people. There are two bike taxis and some normal taxis; the bike taxi men are standing and smoking in front of their bikes. There are still some red and white Christmas / New Year’s decoration on Damstraat.
In general there are a lot of prostitutes on Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal. They are in their windows approximately a meter or a meter and a half above the ground. They have red light in their windows. They are young and only in underwear.
I walk along Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal from Oude Hoogstraat in the left side. I pass by a place called Cannabis Collective. Next to it is a place with live porn shows. On the other side of the street there is a woman sitting in her design studio talking in her phone and next to her there is a prostitute standing in her window with red light behind her. Then I am passing by a street called Stoofsteeg and a bridge is on my right side. In the air, across the street is hanging a neon-light thing in green. There are swans on the canal and some of the people walking by stops up and look at them.
I walk by ‘The Pink Elephant’ which kind of look like a cinema but it is a sex theatre, some people are going in. There are doormen in front of it. There is a big pink elephant on the building. Then I pass by ‘Sex Palace’ where they advertise with peep shows, air-condition and only live shows. There is a coca cola machine in front. I pass by a green, outdoor pessoir – a man goes in there. I pass by ‘Casa Rosso’ which also have sex shows. On my way I pass by a lot of prostitutes and more and more and more people seems to be there as I move from Oude
Hoogstraat along Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal to Molemsteeg. I turn right of Molemsteeg which is quite narrow and with prostitutes on both sides and then I reach China town.
If I go back to Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal and go north east then there will be more places with sex shows, a shawarma place and in the most northern part there will be only a few people – just as in the other end of Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal. Most people are centered in the middle of Oudezijds Achtervoorburgwal.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Actors
There were a lot of people. I was not able to count how many. A lot of them were walking like they were drunk or high – not moving as smooth as people normally do. In general people seemed to be in a good mood – especially the people walking around in groups; they were smiling, talking and laughing. Even though there were a lot of people there was not as much noise as you could have imagined.
As during the daytime most of the people there were men. A lot of them walking together in groups of typically four to six persons, few are walking two and two and even fewer are walking around alone. I can hear that a lot of the people walking around in the groups are speaking other language than Dutch and I think it thereby could be reasonable to believe that they are tourist. In general they are walking around, talking, laughing and looking (a lot!) at the prostitutes. Some of them are going really near to the prostitutes windows. Others are smiling to the prostitutes. I only saw one man going into a prostitute and only one man coming out from a prostitute. Most of the men are wearing dark coloured jackets and jeans.
Some of them are wearing a knitted hat with ‘Amsterdam’ written thereon (I know that you can buy them in most of the tourist shops).
In contrast to the daytime I saw a lot of women – where I almost did not see anybody. All of them were walking in groups of three to five in general. Most of them were wearing make-up and some of them even high heels and fur hats. I did not see interaction between the male groups and the female groups (but I am sure that it happens).
I saw a lot of woman-man couples – both young and old. They were just walking around. One of them was going into the Erotica Museum.
Safety
I did not see anybody conflicting or anything suspicious going on. I saw two times two policemen walking around and two police men and a police woman walking around. All of them where just talking with each other, looking happy and with no worries. I noticed one eye camera.
My presence
I think that the fact that I am standing in an area where mainly men are walking around, and not just any men – but men looking at hookers, are making me more aware of potential tensions and myself as being female. I am trying my best not to make eye contact. I mainly look down or at something else than the men. I am primarily standing in at a spot where a lot of people passes by. I think that the fact that I am standing still some of the time – to observe
– makes me more vounable for comments. Also the fact that I am there alone as a female – I did not see any other females walking around there alone. So I tried to walk around most of the time, also because it was too cold to stand still for longer periods of time. I also did all of my notes on my cell phone either as text or as voice messages – then it seemed like I was either texting or talking with somebody. Because it felt a bit weird to just stand there and watch, and I would not like to attract the wrong kind of attention. When doing a voice message a younger guy (from a group of 4-5 men) asked me who I was talking with, I did not reply – but continued to record, and then he asked if it was my boyfriend, and I just said yes, and then he said: “okay, I’m gonna kill him”.
So obvious I was attracting some attention which I kind of expected, but I did not expect to attract that much. In total I was approached 5 times by different men; singing songs after me, just saying hey or the more offensive ‘boyfriend-killer’ man. I think the reason is a mixture of the fact that some of the men are drunk, there are a lot of women to buy, I am standing there alone and some of the men maybe show off to their friends. In total that may create a space
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District where it seem legit to approach women in a very uncharming and direct manner. I did not felt scared at any point, but at the same point I did not think it was especially nice to be approached in that manner. Especially, because I was trying hard not to be outreaching or anything like that. In fact I was trying my best to look mad, avoid eye contact and otherwise not attract attention. But I think it is the same for all girls being in the area at night time, especially when being alone, because I did not really see any interaction between the male and female groups walking around. I am sure it happens sometimes, but I just did not see it.
Maybe the fact that I was alone is pretty important.
I think the prostitutes seemed a bit scary and intimidating as they were standing in elevated windows, only in underwear illuminated by red light.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 20/01/2013
Time: 14.40-15.35
Location: The corner of Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Molensteeg
About the location
The corner of Oudezijds Achterburgwal/Molensteeg gave me a good view over one of the main streets in the Red light district. I also got a good view of Molensteeg, which is a smaller and more quiet narrow street with at the time eight prostitutes in the windows. I was standing in the corner at Oudezijds Achterburgwal without moving around on the street, but I walked
Molensteeg back and forth a couple of times. I picked that spot because it gave me all the movement in the main street, but also the narrow street.
Physical space
The area
On Oudezijds Achterburgwal many of the biggest sex clubs are located. The canal divide the street and I was standing just next to one of the few bridges. The bridge forced people to walk close to me.
A sports bar was located in the corner and at the time for my observation there was a game going on. I heard Dutch people talking when they were smoking outside the bar.
The Erotic museum is also located close to my observation point at Oudezijds Achterburgwal.
At Molensteeg there was also a small, but very hidden bar.
The environment
The weather is windy and when I arrived it just begun to snow, but not that heavily. 30 minutes later in my observation it is snowing much more. The temperature is around minus five degrees. But the cold wind made it even colder. It was very slippery and the snow made it even worse. Cycling is difficult since it was not plowed yet. Since it was Sunday afternoon it was not a very busy time. It was very quiet, except for the loud shouting from the sports bar.
No music was playing.
Public space
The streets and the bridge are very much a public space. The sport bar is a semi-public space with a, by what I could hear and see, diverse clientèle. Both Dutch speaking and non-Dutch speaking guests was visiting the bar during the game. Molensteeg is also a public space, with prostitutes and a snack bar as a semi-space. The sport bar is a typical English pub in style and is called Old Sailor bar.
Safety
There were many cameras on the Molensteeg. One big “sweeping” camera was placed at the corner of the street, which means right above where I was standing. My perception of it was that it could monitor both streets at the same time. Except for that one there were a smaller camera over every prostitutes window. According to me, there were many cameras for such a small street.
I did not see any police officers during my observation.
The prostitutes
At the Molensteeg there were many prostitutes. In total there are around 20 windows. Half of them was open this Sunday evening. Women wore underwear’s in different styles. They were knocking when a man or a group of men walked by, but most of the time they just looked bored or was talking in the phone. From the corner where I was standing, I saw no prostitutes
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Red Light District at Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Three of the facilities were available for rent, so at that moment there were no business in those.
The coffee shops
I saw no coffee shops from my observation point.
Actors
Most of the people were moving fast and did not looked up, maybe to avoid the snow. Most guys, I would say was between 20 and 40 in age. They were moving both in groups and alone.
I did not saw anyone interact with someone that was not a part of their specific group. The knitted hats with the Amsterdam embroidery was very popular this day, a large number of people walking by wore them. Maybe they were not prepared for the cold weather. People was mostly wearing jeans and not very luxury kind of clothes.
Here is an example of what happened during the observation:
I am standing in the direction of Oudezijds Achterburgwal, I do not have a clear view over
Molensteeg at the moment. A drunk man is walking outside the bar with a can of beer. He is talking to himself in a unidentified language. He is also talking to the Dutch speaking people that are standing outside the sport bar. They reply to him but he seems to drunk to be able to have an actually conversation. He disappears around the corner, to Molensteeg. A group of guys, who do not speak Dutch, are walking across the bridge. They stop after it and looks a bit confused. They are looking around and continue their walk at Molensteeg. Two English speaking men are walking by. One is older, around 55, and the other one is younger, around
25 years. The older one says that he want to find a coffee shop right now. The drunk man mentioned above comes back. He is standing outside the sport bar again. Two persons are cycling by, they have rented bikes. A lonely women with a dog is walking by, she is around
40 years old. The people in the bar are shouting again, very loud this time. The snowing becomes more heavily. A group of young guys passes by. They are around 25-35 years old and are wearing the Amsterdam knitted hats and thick jackets. They stop outside the sport bar and seems to discuss if they should go in or not. They decide not to and continue their stroll along the Molensteeg. I am moving a bit so I still can observe them. They are looking and pointing at the women in the windows. They do not start to talk to any of the women. They continue their walk and disappear around the corner in the other direction. The British guys from before are back. They are still looking for a coffee shop, but apparently it was not the
Red light version of a coffee shop they searched for. “I must have a warm coffee immediately”, the older one says.
It starts snowing even more heavily. A lonely man walks by with a umbrella, his gaze is lowered. Two Dutch speaking persons, one women and a man (both about 45 years) are standing outside the bar smoking. Another couple, wearing sweaters with a Amsterdam print on, is leaving the bar. I get the impression that they are tourists because of the sweaters. I can not hear them talk to each other though.
Suddenly it gets quiet from the bar and more people are leaving. I guess the game is over.
I switch focus to Molensteeg, the narrow street. I am standing in the middle of the street, close to one of the prostitutes. Immediately one man with a opens the door and start to discuss something with the women inside. He glances at me and I get nervous and take a few steps back. He is leaving the women without going inside.
I move my observation point again. Now I am standing in the end of Molensteeg, approximately 100 meters from the corner where I was standing at first. This gets me a good
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District view over the prostitutes and people interacting with them. I see another man coming out from one of the small rooms, a man I 30 minutes earlier saw go inside.
My presence
I do not think my presence affected the people around me. I had my headphones connected to my phone all the time, but I did not listen to music. But people around me did not know that. I did not see anyone looking at me for standing there with my notepad. The only time when I could have affected someone was when I was standing in the beginning of Molensteeg. While
I was standing there a man stopped in front of one of the prostitutes, opened the glass door and started to talk to her. They talked for a while and then he moved on. I do not know if it was me standing there with a notepad or if he just changed his mind. I was not standing close enough to actually hear what they were saying. No one started to talk to me.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 21/01/ 2012
Time: 17.00
Place: Street that leads to Oude Kerk
Fieldwork: It is the 21st of january around 17 o'clock, and I'm walking down a side street that leads to the cannel and the Red Light District. On this street there is a lot of shops, and they are all open at the moment. It is a very narrow street connecting the Ouder Kerk , which appears to me as a big open space/square connecting Red Light District with the Metro
System. Around the Ouder Kerk you also have the Niewmarkt. On this street, it at the moment very quite. Not many people are actually walking around here. The street have the appearance of some kind of back alley, or something like it. There is a lot of tall buildings making the place very dark and mostly illuminated from the shops around. It is also getting darker now, the area appeared to be brighter before, but now the lights from the other buildings and shops can really be seen. But on this small street, the tall building and the narrow build design makes it a little creepy. The tall buildings are mostly made out of (red) bricks. They look old, it must have been build many years ago, since the design looks a old-fashioned, but in the classic dutch artichtechtural way.
There is several different shops in this narrow street, however it at this time of the day appears
"closed" and backalley-like: There is sushi-shop with yellow and green, very illuminating colors. After that, there is a laundremat, which looks really trashy and old,. The tiles are light green just as the fashionable 1970's design of many bathrooms and kitchens. Two people are in there, but it looks like they work there; they were uniforms and don't look like they are in a hurry. As I look in there, they are starring a little bit out at me while they continue their own conversation (that conversation might have been about something funny, as one of them (a girl) makes a nervous laughter). On the other side of this narrow street there is a english bar or pub. It has a big neon sign with its name on the front of it. It looks like there is only 5 persons in there, and they are having a beer. They are sitting in two different groups. From what I can see from outside of the pub, there is nothing written in dutch, everything is in english. I nervously and with caution try to enter the room, and I put on a face that signalize: "I'm just here to look if this place is something for me", which allows me to leave the room shortly after having a short impression of its appearance from the inside. The inside of it looks like a classic pub with cosy lightning and some older tables (a lot of tall tables with bar stools).
The street is, however, not only shops. The spots where there is no shops or pubs, some facades appears. I cannot really see if these facades belongs to the shops or if it is private territory. However, most of these facades contains a lot of signs stating that either that "you should not park your bike here" or "you should not enter here". Most of the signs are written in english.
As I walk further down this narrow street (it might be only 100 meters long), the shops are slightly changing. For example, a Thai Massage now appears. I glance shortly in there, and she looks to be practicing some (ordinary!!) massage. She looks and me, and I look the other way around shortly. After that shop, a couple of the more dirty shops appears.
These "dirty" rooms are easy recognizable as they all have some of the same design; it's a relatively tall window, with a girl standing in the front looking out. She is - of course - wearing very little clothing. Some of the windows are empty, but most of the windows in this street are not. One of the girls - a brunette, younger girl - is knocking on the window discreetly to come into contact with me. I pretend that I did not see that. The same happens
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District from the other side of the narrow street; two girls are in that windows. They might be knocking because nobody else it there at the moment, or because I look like a typical costumer - I hope it's the first case here.
These "dirty" rooms are all red: Red curtains and red lighting in there. The girls in windows are most often seen doing their pose in the attempt to get attention.
People do really reach differently. Clearly, on this street, mostly men are walking around.
Some of them are passing the windows without reacting to the "interaction" that the girls in the windows want to start. Some are looking very shy and bashful. Some people are actually reacting, either by giving back a smile or - if they are walking in a group on two or more - they start talking to each other and looking towards the window, maybe having a small laughter. Nobody - as long as I'm here - have gone into on of the shops, though. Most are, however, just wandering by.
Another side street: I have just wandered from the first side street to another one, linking the
Nieuwmarkt to the Red Light District at the canals. Here, a lot of tourist shops appears to me.
This tourist shop is selling a lot of gismos and gadgets - useless, they seem to me. Mostly thing representing Amsterdam - the XXX or things with a weed-leaf on. These things has mostly red and black colors.
I continue my walk down "Molenstegstraat"
Sequrity/safety: I see here a sign signalizing that the area is under surveillance. Furthermore, two police officers are crossing the street and patrolling the area. The atmosphere bears mark of the increasing darkness as the night gets closer. Slowly, the bars and shops are increasingly filled with more people. On this street, Molenstegstraat, I see a couple of Thai shops and china food and also a couple of restaurants. Also, I see a couple of second-hand shops.
Some of the people walking the street looks a little more rough and trashy now. Also, a lot of people are walking their dogs; for example two smaller kids just came out of an apartment with their little brown dog to walk with it. It appears to me very easy to separate those who live here from those who just wanders around. Of course, I be sure who lives here and who doesn't. But those people, which I believe does not live here, they wanders a little more slowly and looks more into the shops and the red windows. Their walking tempo "unveil" them. Those who has an errand here walks a little faster without glancing allover the place. I guess this is not something special for the Red Light Distict.
Compared to the other times I've been here, not many people are here at the moment. It is too early in the day. The general built environment is characterized by narrowness, which makes the atmosphere very intense and intimiate. The neon lights from both sides of the road are reflected down in the water.
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Date: 21/01/2013
Time: 17:30
Place: Warmoesstraat
Monday the 21sth of January, the time is 5.30 in the afternoon.
Urban Struggle
Red Light District
I stand in Warmoestraat, midway down the street on the pavement between the entrance of a bar on one side and a staircase to an entrance of a building on the other side. This streets is the beginning of the Red Light District, close to Dam Square. The street is narrow, on both sides there is a pavement, but they are so narrow as well, that two people can hardly pass each other by and especially not these places where there is staircases to buildings or bikes parked by the walls of the buildings. The street seems much like a tourist mekka. There are not really any houses that seem like they are just for normal rent, all the way down the street there are small shops, bars, coffee shops, sex shops, tattoo shops and food shops, who mostly sell fast food.
Most of the shops and bars have big and colourful signs out in the front, a lot of them has a text written in neon, are blinking or in other ways lightning up in an attempt to attract the people passing by.
Outside it's cold this afternoon, a couple of minus degrees and it is starting to get dark as well, but because of all the light from the different shop signs the street does not seem dark.
The street in itself is bustling with life, crammed with people continuously walking by. There are not many people walking alone, most of the people on the streets are walking two and two or in bigger groups. Many of the groups are young people, young men, somewhere in their twenties and it is very obvious that many of these groups are tourists. They are looking curious around, some of the groups are wearing identical knitted hats in different colours with the word Amsterdam written in big letters. A lot of the groups are also caring a lot of shopping bags, probably because the main shopping streets of the city center, placed around
Dam Square, are just around the corner. A couple of groups are also passing by caring big bags or trolleys as if they just arrived or are on their way home.
There is a lot of noise in the street. You can hear a lot of different loud music playing from the shops, since many of them have the doors open out in to the street, but there's also a noise from the many people passing by, especially the groups are loud, talking and laughing and sometimes yelling to each other, some of them seem a little drunk or high. In the background I also hear a church bell ringing for a little while.
Where I stand on the pavement there is a coffee shop on my left side and a fashionable and modern looking dildo shop on my right. On the opposite side of the street there is a a little shop that sells fast food, a sex shop with pictures of women and couples having sex in the
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window still and next to it a big bar.
Urban Struggle
Red Light District
A woman passes by with a little child in a stroller, she doesn't really look around, just looks straight ahead. Besides this child in the stroller I don't see any children at all, and not really any families either, it is mostly groups of friends, passing by or looking for a night out, couples or locals walking by on their own or dragging their bikes next to them. The street is also so narrow and crowded that biking would be impossible, no one tries to do it, everyone is walking, and there are no cars in this street either.
A group of young guys make a stop in front of the sex shop which is right in front of me.
They laugh and chat to each other while looking at the pictures in the window sill, it looks as if they're considering going in, but after a short while they continue down the street. A little later a middle aged man passes by and goes directly towards the same sex shop, he walks in without consideration.
The dildo shop on my right side also attract a lot of attention from the groups passing by.
Especially the groups of young people. A couple of times while I stand there, groups are making a stop, laughing at the different dildo's in many different bright colours, that are placed in the window sill. One of does groups end up going into the shop as well, but must of the people continues down the street after a look and a laugh.
Next to the dildo shop there is a coffee shop. It is placed on a corner, between this street and smaller side street. This coffee shop seems very popular. It looks crowded inside, all the tables turning out to the streets are taken. A group of both young men and women make a stop in front of the coffee shop looking inside while they're talking to each other. Another group makes a stop in front as well, they are older, maybe in their forties, also both men and women.
After a short while the older group walks in to the coffee shop while the younger group continues down the street.
I decide to walk a little further down the street to see if anything is different when I'm not any longer in the center of the street. I walk around 100 meters down the street, but all of the sudden the street is changing. This is the last part of the street, which is leading directly down to Dam Square, and on the last couple of hundred meters leading to Dam Square there is only normal housing and bigger buildings that could look like offices. I stand right there where the street is changing, on a crossroad as well. On my right hand there's just buildings, and on my left hand there are shops everywhere and in front of me there is a quiet side street leading further in to the Red Light District. In front of me there is a big tattoo shop, right on the corner of the main street and the side street, with to young guys with a lot of tattoos and piercings working there. A lot of people go in to have a look. After that there is a couple of
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District snack bars and there after a coffee shop. The coffee shop seems busy as well. While I stand there a lot of people, mainly groups, are walking in, while others are coming out. One bigger group stand outside the coffee shop for a short while, discussing, in the end only half of the group walks in, where as the rest of the group continues down the street. A couple in their thirties comes out of the coffee shop afterwards, they are in the middle of an intense talk while they are coming towards me and pass me by, they both seem pretty high, walking very slow and not completely straight. Next to the coffee shop there is a clothing shop, mostly selling hats and t-shirts, which all seem a bit touristy, with a rastafari look. A guy in his thirties are standing outside the shop having a cigarette. After a minute or two another guy comes out of the shop and light up a cigarette as well. They stand outside the shop smoking and talking for a little while.
All these things are happening when I look at all the shops to my left side, but when I turn to my right side, where there are just buildings, the street is completely empty. It seems like all the activity in the street, stops very abruptly just here. In stead of going to Dam Square, many of the people are taking one of the many side streets further in to the Red Light District, or walking in the other direction down the street.
In general, however, all though there is so much activity and noise in the street, it does not really seem as if people are interacting with each other on the street. The groups are talking with each other, the couples as well, and the people walking alone are just passing by. There is not really anyone who is just hanging in the street, in front of the bars or coffee shops, people may make a little stop to have a look or make a decision, but after a short while they all either go in or keep walking. It is probably also because it is winter, snow and minus degrees outside.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 10.00 – 11.00
Location: Around Nieuwmarkt
Location
I was primarily in the area of the Nieuwmarkt. Nieuwmarkt is a ‘square’ in the centre of
Amsterdam between the Geldersekade and the Klovenierburgwal. In the north there is the
Zeedijk and in the south the Sint Antoniesbreestraat, it forms a midpoint of the
Nieuwmarktbuurt.
Central is the monumental Waag (weigh house), which looks like a little castle. The Waag forms the middle of the square. The ‘square’ is surrounded by a lot of monumental buildings, hospitality and a police station. The Nieuwmarkt is surrounded by the Red Light District and
Chinatown. I’m facing the Waag and in my back there is the Sint Antoniesbreestraat
Streetnames
The Nieuwmarkt is surrounded by the ‘Wallen’ and Chinatown. It is funny to see that a lot of street names are in Dutch and in Chinese characters. This is because a lot of Chinese people are living in this area, more specific at the Zeedijk.
Looking at my surrounding I see a Chinese restaurant and little Chinese shops. The shops and restaurants all have Chinese characters on front and they all use the tyipical Chines colours red and yellow.
The area
The area is different than other areas of Amsterdam, the Red Light District is also known for the narrow streets and crowded places, and the Nieuwmarkt is different, because it is an open area, with not so many houses, restaurants, shops and other buildings. It is a central area and it is easy attainable by car and bicycle, but also by metro, bus or train, sometimes a short walk is necessary to reach your destination.
Sint Antoniesbreestraat is differently, because this is a small, narrow street, the streets are around five meter wide. The Kloveniersburgwal and the Korte Koningsstraat are the same as
Sint Antoniesbreestraat.
Good to know is that the Nieuwmarkt is situated near by Oudezijds Achterburgwal, it is like a five minutes’ walk.
The environment
It is a very cold day I chose to make my observation. The sun is shining, but it is still minus two Celsius degrees, but luckily it is not very windy and I found myself in more luck that it is not raining. It is a very bright day. Due to the season, there is some snow on the street, it is there since the last snowfall on Sunday. Some of the snow is still white, but most of the snow looks a little bit dirty and some of it has already melded. There are a few trees without leaves, but this is due to the season, it is January, so everything has to bloom again.
There are some traffic signs, some of them say that people are not allowed to park their car and some of them are giving directions where to go. There are some high poles, which contained a light green board with the sign of Amsterdam on it, the three little xxx. There are no cameras on the street.
It should be clear by now that in front of me is the Waag.
On my left handside there is a Chinese restaurant, with houses on the first and second floor.
There is a street in front where bicycles are parked, then the car road comes and then I see the square with the Waag.
On my right side I can see a little café/restaurant, it has tables and chairs outside, next to the
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District café there is a coffee shop. In front of them there is a street, where bicycles are parked. On this side I can see the entrance of the metro and some houses. Here is also a car road which, breaks the space between the street and the square with the Waag. On this side of the car road, cars are also parked.
When I turn around, the Waag is in my back now and I’m facing the Sint Antoniesbreestraat, I see a street for people who want to walk and there is a car road. Little shops are alternated with houses.
Very typical for this place is, that the square in the middle, where the Waag is standing is surrounded by a car road. So the square is some sort of separated from the rest of the area.
The Waag (weigh house)
The Waag is a 15 th
century building on Nieuwmarkt square in Amsterdam. It was built in
1488 and it was originally a city gate and part of the walls of Amsterdam. The building has served as a guide hall, museum, fire station and anatomical theatre.
Today the Waag society is housed on the upper floors of the building. The ground floor is now a café and restaurant.
The bar/restaurant/shops
There are not as much shops and restaurants as in other areas, which is different from the other areas around the Red Light District. On my left side is the Chinese restaurant, in front of me there is the Waag, which is a restaurant/café now and on my left side there is a bar/café and next to it a coffee shop.
The houses
The square is surrounded by houses. People are living on the first and second floor of the buildings. People are living in the houses, which are situated in streets of the Sint
Antoniesbreestraat, the Kloveniersburgwal and the Geldersekade.
All the houses look typical Amsterdam, they look old and narrow. The bricks are reddish, dark and brown. Most of the windows are surrounded with white frames, the windows are small, but high.
Safety
In this area there were no cameras and during my presence, evethough I saw a lot of police officers walking on the streets and the police station is just around the corner. On the window of the Chinese restaurant there was a sticker which said that there are cameras in the area and that they record everything what is going on. I didn’t see anything suspicious or activities that seemed dangerous or criminal.
Actors
During my observation there were not a lot of people on the streets. I think that this is due to the fact that it is Tuesday morning, 10 o’clock in the morning and it is freezing. In total I think that I saw around 20 people walking by, I saw around 15 people on the bicycle and there were around 10 cars passing by.
Nobody was sitting somewhere, because in this area I didn’t see benches. Everybody was on their way to the thing that had to do that day, so they were going to work, school, the supermarket etc.
People who were on the bicycle were all alone, I think they were locals, because they were in a hurry and they knew where to go.
The people who were walking the streets where in little groups. The biggest group I saw consisted of five people. It was a mixture of males and females, young and old. People were chatting with each other and looking at the environment, I think most of them were tourists.
Some of them took pictures of the Waag and other elements in the environment.
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The people were wearing warm clothing, most of them were wearing a pair of jeans, a warm coat, some hand cloves and a hat.
Even though this place is known of a lot of Chinese people, I didn’t saw one of them.
My presence
The place I was standing, was a really good one, I think, because I had a very good overview on the area. I loved watching people passing by, and standing still by the environment. Mostly
I’m not so much aware of my environment, mostly I’m in a hurry and I have not so much attention for the things around me.
I loved to watch the people and the way they behaved. In my opinion, they all behaved normal. I think that it would be really interesting observing this place during a nice summer day. I think that this place will be very crowded and the terraces will be full of locals and tourists.
There was somebody asking me what I was doing, when I explained him, he really liked it.
He said that this way of looking at the city gives you a different understanding of it, because normally you don’t look at it this way.
I loved looking at the buildings, houses and the Waag. The design of it is so typical Dutch.
There was no moment I felt unsafe, because the police was walking through the streets and I knew that if something would go wrong, other people around me would help.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 11.00-11.30
Location: Zeedijk
Location
I was on walking along the Zeedijk in the district ‘De Wallen’ in the centre of Amsterdam.
The street starts at the Prins Hendrikkade and ends at the Newmarkt. The Zeedijk is the heart of Amsterdam’s Chinatown, the Chinese neighbourhood of Amsterdam. If you walk along the street you can see lots of toko’s and Chinese restaurants like the Restaurant Nam Kee, which is famous for the book ‘De Oesters van Nam Kee.’ Although there is no prostitution on the
Zeedijk, it is still perceived as an important part of the Wallen.
Because the Zeedijk is perceived as the centre of the Chinese district most of the street signs are in Dutch and in Chinese, a lot of Chinese people live and work in the area. You can see that there are a lot of Chinese influences, not only in food and drinks, but I also walked past a few Chinese jewellers. Mist the shops and restaurants have Chinese and European signs and a lot of red and gold and yellow, which are typical Chinese colors.
The Zeedijk runs parallel to the East border of the Red Light District. From the 19th century this area of Amsterdam changed into the prostitution area and the amount of bars and restaurants grew. Although the Zeedijk used to be for the rich people, it didn’t get invested in anymore. The Zeedijk was neglected and in the ‘70’s it was a centre for drug trade and a nogo area.
After some investments in 1985 the Zeedijk got a lot better and the drug trade almost went away. Because of Chinatown it’s now a very busy street and since 2000 there is a Buddhist temple on number 108-116.
I stood still at a shop called Ivana’s Souvenirs somewhere in the middle of the Zeedijk, because most shops opened at twelve o’clock, this was one of the few stores that was open at the time.
The area
Although most streets on the Wallen are quite narrow, the Zeedijk is quite spacious. There are a lot of different kinds of shops and restaurants and it looks like a street where a lot of different cultures meet. The Nieuwmarkt and Damsquare are really close by so it’s easy to reach by public transport. The sidestreets of the Zeedijk are really different to the wide and light Zeedijk, they are very narrow and dark, not more than 2,5 meters wide.
The environment
Although the sun was shining when I did my observation, it was really cold. It was about minus 3 degrees Celsius but a very bright day and not windy at all. Due to the snow on the
Sunday before I did my observation there was still a lot of snow on the road although some parts were already cleaned. Because of the traffic and all the people crossing most of the snow was really dirty and black, or a bit of a red-brown like colour and on some spots there’s ice where trucks of some sort drove over the snow.
There are no trees on the Zeedijk, but I did see some trees on a canal I passed on the way.
Because it was winter the trees I saw had no leaves. A lot of the shops also had some snow left on the windowsills which has started to melt, I think that’s because of the heat from inside. Also some of the roofs had icicles hanging from them. There are a lot of trashcans on
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Red Light District the Zeedijk and some of the bars have signs outside on the walls to promote the beer they have on tap and the shops have signs to tell the people walking along what they can buy there.
There is one shop that says Sony on the outside, one pizzeria with the menu outside and also on my other hand a bar which promotes Jupiler beer. There are a lot of bicycles and scooters parked on the street. Maybe they belong to resident who live above the shops on the first or second floor or to the shopowners themselves. There are also some cars parked at the moment, but they look like they are just dropping something of. Coming my way is a garbage truck, it’s picking up all the garbage outside of the restaurants and shops.
In front of me there’s a brightly lit tourist/souvenir shop. In the window there are also a lot of things promoting drugs and there are also some sex toys in the window. Behind me there’s a nightclub, but it’s just closed. It says on the sign that they close at eight in the morning.
The little street that leads to the houses has a gate at the beginning to close itself of from the
Zeedijk. On the gate there is a sign that says ‘No pedestrians between 18.00 and 02.00 except for residents’, it’s also restricted for bicycles and scooters and has a lot of stickers on it.
Buildings
All the buildings are high and just how you would expect a building in Amsterdam to look like, a bit crooked due to the moist ground and wooden poles. Brown bricks and most of the buildings have hooks hanging from the roofs. The houses look old and narrow from the inside. Most of the windows are surrounded by white or black frames and only some of the buildings are painted white or a different colour.
Safety
In this area I didn’t notice the presence of any video cameras but maybe they were hidden. I did see some police officers walking on the street and going in to an open sandwichshop.
Some of the shops and bars and restaurants did have some stickers that said they had security camera’s inside. Also one of the cars had one of those flashing red lights for a car alarm.
Because almost nothing was open I didn’t really see a lot of other people and the people that I did see were mostly locals who looked like they were in a hurry to get somewhere or tourists who looked a bit disappointed that there wasn’t really anything to see at the moment. I didn’t see anything that looked like it wasn’t right and I didn’t notice anything suspicious or dangerous or criminal.
Other observations
The people that I did see were dressed for the cold weather and watching where they were walking because of the slippery streets. I saw a few people on bicycles coming through the street. Most people were walking by themselves or were with friends. It was more males than females. I didn’t see any Chinese or other asian people on the street, which I found strange because there are so many Chinese Shops.
My presence where I was standing on the pavement I didn’t really bother anyone but I had a good overview of the street. I did get some strange looks from the owner of the tourist shop because I was just standing still and taking notes and talking in to my phone. Because the street was really long I couldn’t oversee what was happening everywhere but I did like watching the few people who were there passing by. Normally I don’t just stand still in the street and watch people, that’s something that I do more when I’m sitting outside with a drink in the summer.
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I think that in the afternoon it might be a lot busier and especially on a summer day when people can do their shopping in the sunshine. I also think a lot more tourists would come over the Zeedijk just to look around in the summer because it’s nice weather. In winter they might just go to the tourist things like the real Red Light part of Amsterdam.
I never felt unsafe because I could see police and there were no suspicious people around, also because I was next to a shop I could just go in if I saw somebody who acted strangely.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 22/01/2013
Time: 14.00-14.30
Location: Oudezijds Achterburgwal
Location
The Oudezijds Achterburgwal (OZ Achterburgwal) is a street and a canal in the Red Light
District in Amsterdam. The street starts at the Grimburgwal in the south and ends at the
Zeedijk in the North where it becomes the Oudezijds Kolk. The bridge, where I was standing on, between the Oude Doelenstraat and the Oude Hoogstraat forms a clear division between the busy part of the Wallen and the quiet parkt. The North part is filled with sexshops, windowprostitution, peepshows, brothels, coffeshops and bars. Also the Hash Marihuana &
Hemp Museum is on the north side of the OZ Achterburgwal. In the South there are buildings from the University of Amsterdam like the Binnengasthuis and the Oudemanhuispoort.
The OZ Achterburgwal was cleaned up in 2006 by the district of Amsterdam. The district announced in 2007 that the prostitution was going to get less over the years and one of the
Brothelowners was more or less forced to sell 51 of his windows on the OZ Achterburgwal.
The prostitutes have been replaced by 15 fashion designers in 2008. The OZ Achterburgwal is one of the only places where prostitution won’t disappear completely.
The area
This street is very different to the other streets on the canals in Amsterdam. The Red Light
District is well known for its sexindustry but on this street it’s very obvious. You can’t look far without seeing a peepshow, sexshop, window or coffeeshop. Because of the open water it looks very spacious and inviting. Because it’s only a short walk away from Nieuwmarkt,
Damsquare and Central station it’s very easy to reach. supposedly the street is always very busy and crowded, but it wasn’t at all when I was there.
The environment
It was really cold on the bridge because it is an open space and there was a lot of wind. The sun was shining before I got there, but went away as I stood to take pictures. It was about minus 2 degrees Celsius at that moment, according to my phone. It wasn’t snowing or raining, so I was in luck and could take my time taking pictures and looking around. Because of heavy snowfall on Sunday you could still see a lot of snow, the streets where the cars drive were cleaned but the footpaths and trashcans were still white on top. Most of the snow was very dirty because of people and bicycles going through it. Also some of the snow had started to melt.
On the canals there were some trees, but because it’s winter they didn’t have any leaves. I can imagine that it’s quite beautiful in summer. I was surprised to see that the trees were only on one side of the canal. There were also a lot of road signs to direct traffic. There was a red sign with a white stripe to show that you couldn’t drive into that side of the street, this is because there are also parked cars on the side of the road and the street is too narrow to let two cars pass. There was also a blue and red sign to show drivers you can’t park on that side of the canal, this was on the same side as the trees were. The lightpoles that I saw there looked very old and very much like the others you see in Amsterdam. On my one hand there was a bar on the corner with a Amstel Beer sign on the outside.
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On one side of the canal I could see a house with red wooden doors in front of the windows, although this is quite common for Amsterdam, I didn’t see any more. Most of the houses look like typical canalhouses from Amsterdam, a shop downstairs and apartments on the first and second floor. Most houses have hooks on top of the building. I can see some parked bicycles but a lot less than in other parts of the district and on other canals.
Bars restaurants and shops
There are quite a lot of bars in the area, more like brown pubs where you can get a hamburger and beer. The bar on the corner looks nice and welcoming from the outside and you can sit outside, in the summer it might be a really nice place to visit and watch the people going by during the day. Shops are mostly tourist- and sexshops. I can see one designer which is also a coffeehouse. It doesn’t really stand out because they don’t have anything outside, I just noticed it because I walked past it before.
Safety
When I was there I didn’t notive any camera’s, although I would imagine they would have some outside. Also I didn’t see any police. Some of the shops had stickers to indicate that they had a security system inside. From what I could see I couldn’t see anything suspicious happening.
Actors
During my observation there weren’t a lot of people on the streets. I think that’s due to the fact that it was a very cold Tuesday and most people were at work or inside to keep away from the cold. In the 10 minutes I was there I saw some people who looked like tourists, some English people who were looking in the window of one of the prostitutes in the sidestreet and some passers-by on bicycles who could have been locals. Most of the people I saw were wearing what looked like really warm jumpers and jackets, most of them were wearing jeans and good shoes. I saw two girls on bikes who had snowboots on, and almost everybody was wearing gloves. Some of the people took some pictures of the canal and things that point out ‘Red Light District’ and there was one couple who looked a little embarrassed to be walking around in the Red Light District.
In this, the second, observation; I never saw anybody by him/herself. People were walking in pairs of 2 or 3. What also stood out was that I saw an older couple coming out of the bar on the corner, but after that I only saw people between 18 and 30.
My presence
Because I was standing alone, on the bridge, in the freezing cold, with my notebook and phone, some people looked really curious as to what I was doing there. One couple of about
25 years old asked me for directions, but I didn’t know the street they asked for, so I looked it up for them on my phone. We then had a short conversation about what I was doing and I told them a little background info of the Red Light District.
I liked this spot a lot better than the first one I went to, although this one is in the real centre of the Red Light District. I really love Amsterdam do I think it was the canal that I liked a lot, there was also a lot more to see than on the Zeedijk and if you stand there for some time, you really get to experience the ‘real’ Amsterdam as it is portrayed in the Tourist guides. You have the canal, the brick houses, coffeeshops, prostitution, trees and a bar all in one street, and
I really got to appreciate Amsterdam like this.
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Red Light District
Normally if I walk along the Oudezijds Achterburgwal, I am in a rush because I have to get somewhere or I’m walking along with a friend and don’t really pay attention to what’s happening around me. But if you stand still for 15 minutes, you start to appreciate the little things that you normally don’t see.
On a sunny day the Oudezijds Achterburgwal might be really busy and hot, and at night I think it will feel less safe. But at least I got to experience this part of Amsterdam on my own this time and was able to enjoy it.
There was no moment that I felt unsafe there, even though there was no police on the street at that time and I didn’t know if there were camera’s. There were other people who would have been able to help me if something went wrong. The side streets with the prostitutes in the windows did make me feel uncomfortable, but that was mostly due to strange men looking in the windows.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: Tuesday the 22/01/2013
Time: 16.00-17.00
Location: Barndesteeg and Oudezijdse Achterburgwal
Location
I’m standing at the crossing between the Oudezijds Achterburgwal and the Barndesteeg. On my left hand side there is the Oudezijds Achterburgwal directing to Grimburgwal and in my back there is the Barndesteeg heading to Kloveniersburgwal. Walking through the
Barndesteeg I spotted a little monastery, which is called the Betaniënklooster, the entrance of it in the Barndesteeg.
On the Oudezijds Achterburgwal there is a canal, which separate the Oudezijds
Achterburgwal into two separate street, with the canal in the middle. You can cross them by using one of the bridges.
Barndesteeg
Behind me is the Barndesteeg, which consists of prostitutes, massage shops and small touristic shops. Walking through this Barndesteeg during my way to the Oudezijds
Achterburgwal, I spot a little monastery, the Bethaniënklooster. It is now used as a concert room. It looks really nice, the door is of massive wood and the frontage is gold. You have to climb up a little stair to get to the front door.
The street is very small and narrow, I see windows with red lights. Behind it women are preparing themselves for their clients. Some of them are smiling and gesticulating to the people passing by or they are chatting with each other. Most of them are around the age of 30 and are only wearing underwear.
The massage shop I walk by doesn’t give me a nice feeling, it has an black/blue sign which says; ‘Thai massage’, I don’t like the men who are in the shop. I’m really happy when I’m heading Oudezijds Achterburgwal and I can breathe normally.
The area
The Oudezijds Achterburgwal is characterized by a mixture of art galleries, fashion designers, tourist shops, other little shops, bars, cafés, restaurants and some sex shops. The Barndsteeg is a mixture of prostitutes, massage shops and small touristic shops.
The environment
It was a very cold day, even though the sun was shining. I observed around 16.00 and that made it a little bit colder, because the sun was already going down. Again there was some snow on the street, some of it was already melted, so this didn’t support the colour, which was grey and black, it looked really dirty. But the snow which was white, gave the environment a nice and cosy atmosphere. It is special to see Amsterdam and the canals with snow, this is not something you see every day.
There were some high trees on the street, but they had no leaves. There were also lamppost and bins.
The area is accessible for cars, so there are some parking places. Typically Amsterdam, they were all taking, it is really hard to find a free parking place in Amsterdam, when you see one, it is really your lucky day.
(Canal) Houses
On the Oudezijds Achterburgwal are a lot of houses. The streets are surrounded by houses, on the ground floor, most of them are used for shops, restaurants, cafes, bars etc. Some of them have a little stair to reach the front door and others have a normal door, which are accessible
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Red Light District by just standing on the street. I think that on the other floors of the houses, people are living.
The floors all have windows, which have white and black frames. All the houses consists of the typical Dutch style, they all have different form of rooftop.
The shops
The shops which are on the ground floor of the houses on Oudezijds Achterburgwal are a mixture of everything.
On my left hand side there is a café/bar, you have to use the stairs to get access to it. It has a red shed and on the window there is a sign which says ‘café’. Inside it looks really dark and brown, not a café I would go myself. Next to this café there is restaurant Blauw, which makes use of a white/blue sign with ‘restaurant blauw’ on it. You have to use the stairs to enter it.
On my right side is a hotel and next to that there is a café, both of them use signs to mention that they are there and for both you have to use the stairs to enter them.
On the other side of the street, from left to right, I see café bar de Stoof, next to it there is a sexshop, then comes Theatre casa Rosso and the rest are houses. Theatre casa Rosso is a gamble- and sexcentre, on the surface it doesn’t look like one. The frontage of the building is black and on this black frontage, there is a big elephant, he is wearing a tie with the three litte xxx.
Safety
I couldn’t spot any security cameras in this place. There were some stickers on the windows of some of the houses which said that there were security cameras in the area and that they record what is doing on. Standing at the Oudezijds Achterburgwal I didn’t felt threatened and
I do not see anything suspicious or activities that seemed dangerous or criminal. I did saw some police officers on the other side of the street and at the street where I was standing a police car drove by.
Actors
In general there were not a lot of people on the street. I think that this is due to the weather and also that it was Tuesday and around 16.00 o’clock. In total I have seen around 80 people passing by. Some of them were by bike and others were just walking. I have seen around 5 cars passing by. And during my visit on the other side of the street, Amstel Brouwerij was delivering some beer at one of the bars. It was really nice observing that.
Most of the people I saw were men, I can’t explain why there were more men than women on the street. Maybe due to the fact that the Barndesteeg is behind me. Some of the men are alone and some of them are in small groups, not more than four people. They are chatting and laughing with each other.
During my observation I have seen two kids, they were walking with their father through the snow. The little women I saw, were walking around with a man on their side, those could be their husband or just a friend.
I think most of the people passing by were tourists, because most of them didn’t speak Dutch and looked different. People were wearing warm clothes, like a warm jacket, a good pair of jeans, some warm boots, hand cloves and a hat.
My presence
During my observation there were primarily men and tourists in the area. Because it was getting darker later on, I was aware of the facts that I was there all by myself, being a woman.
Especially, when two men, who were coming out of the café on my left side, were asking me what I was doing. I told them that I was working on a project for the Free University of
Amsterdam and that my focus was safety. They told me that I had to look out for weird men
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Red Light District and that I was vulnerable standing there all by myself. They advised me to go home as soon as possible. Another man who passed by, also asked me what I was doing, I told me that I was a student from the University. He shouted at me and said that it would be better if I was working and not wasting the time of other people by doing stupid research.
After those two incidents I really wanted to go home, but I stayed a little bit longer, to finish my observation. It felt like a relief when I saw two police officers walking on the other side of the street. And five minutes later a police car was passing by at my side of the street.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: Tuesday 22/01/2013
Time: 17.40-18.40
Place: Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Outside ‘Red Light District Souvenirs’ + ‘Casa Rosso’.
Location
I chose Oudezijds Achterburgwal because I thought there would be the most people there and there were not many people out when I was out as it was a cold evening. I stood in beside Red
Light District Souvenirs because there was space where I could stand without being noticed too much. Also it was on the corner so I could observe more than one street at once. It was also very close to a bridge crossing the canal, increasing the amount of human traffic in the area. After about half an hour I walked about 50m down the road and sat on a bench outside the Casa Rosso.
The Area
Oudezijds Achterburgwal is the widest street in the Red Light District due to the canal flowing through it. The canal wasn’t frozen over but there were some thin layers of ice on it.
There were lots of ducks and two swans in the canal, more than I’ve ever seen in the area before. The street is home to sex shops, bars, coffee shops, fast food shops, casinos, a hotel, live sex theatres and of course many red light windows. It is a very central street, only 5 minutes walk to dam square. There are a few narrow streets coming off the main street. These streets have mostly red lights windows in them and nothing else. They can get quite crowded when groups pass through them. There are also some ‘child friendly’ side streets, which are marked with a blue road sign picturing an adult holding a child’s hand. There are a few tall, thin trees with no leaves running on either side of the canal. In between them are light posts, bins and parked bikes.
The Environment
The sun was set for a long time so it was dark and cold while I was doing my observation, about minus six degrees Celsius. The sky was a midnight blue and there were no clouds.
There was a breeze every now and again and snow on the ground but no precipitation. The snow was cleared off the roads but not fully off the footpaths or along the canal.
Public/Private Space
The street is a mixture of public, semi-private and private spaces. The street itself is a public space as everyone may use it. The shops, bars and coffee shops are all semi-private spaces as the public may go inside but usually they must purchase something to stay and they are not allowed in all areas of the building. The houses and the prostitute’s rooms are private spaces, as the public are not allowed to enter them without invitation.
The Buildings
Most the buildings in the area are typical old, Dutch-style buildings, except for the Theatre
Casa Rossa, which displays a neon pink/red elephant wearing a neon green tie with three red xs going down it. Around the elephant is a neon pink/red border. Underneath ‘THEATRE
CASA ROSSA’ is written in light-up, red letters. Most of the rest of the buildings have either a bar/shop/prostitutes/casino or a coffee shop in the bottom while it is impossible to tell what the tops of the buildings are used for from the exterior. Only some lights are on in the tops of the buildings but you cannot see into them. The buildings are made of reddish/brown bricks, they have white window- and doorframes and some of them have a design on the top. Some of them also have no ground floor but an outside staircase leading to a basement floor and another one leading to an elevated level.
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Red Light District
The Prostitutes
The prostitutes are spread out in the buildings along either side of the canal. They windows are grouped in 3s, 4s and 5s but not all of them have lights on. In total I count 13 red lights on the side of the street across the canal. The ones without lights on have a full-length red curtain drawn. When girls are in the windows they are under a neon red light but also usually a black light, which illuminates their costumes. When I was outside the tourist shop I could only properly see two girls in different windows across the canal. Every so often they would attract the attention of a group of male tourists but I didn’t see anyone go into them. On the other street that the souvenir shop was also on was a small narrow street with more prostitutes on it that got more attention.
Noise
As there was not that many people out, the street sometimes got quiet. The noise picked up when groups of males (usually tourists – could tell by the languages they spoke, wearing tourist clothes) walked by. Once a man on his own walked by making noise – calling out to no one in particular. The ducks and swans also made noise. The church bells chimed at 18:00 and again at 18:30.
Safety
I did not see any suspicious or dangerous behaviour or activities. In general people were not overtly concerned about their safety. One young Asian man walked past in a group with his rucksack over his stomach instead of his back – usually done to prevent pickpockets. The rest of the people in his group were not holding their bags in particular ways, they were however all closed. I did not see any police go through the area in my hour there. There are frequent modern, round security cameras along the street.
Users
I would estimate that I saw 200/250 people pass by in the hour that I was there. As it got later and darker, the amount of people increased. They were using the streets for different reasons, some were just using them to get to another place, and some were wandering up and down just soaking in the atmosphere but not using the semi private spaces on the street. Others were on the street specifically to use the shops/bars etc. Some girls stopped at the edge of the canal and fed the ducks. Other people use the street as a background to their photos. I saw mostly men. The only women I saw were either in a mixed group or with at least one other girl. I saw no children. Men passed by alone and in groups. I saw a mixture of tourists- from all over but mainly European- and locals (I could tell by the languages they were speaking). There was a mixture of ages in the range of 18-65 years but most were in the range of 20-45 years.
Most people wore jeans or dark trousers and dark coloured coats. I saw one man looking out a window in the top of one of the buildings across the canal, looking down at the street users.
No one seems to notice him. People frequently stopped beside me to look at the contents of the souvenir shop through the window beside me. About 7 people go into the shop at different times. Most people are enjoying themselves, looking around and laughing. The prostitutes knock as men who are by themselves walk by. The men sometimes walk by without notice and sometimes say something to the prostitute but rarely go in. I did not see anyone spontaneously go into a prostitute after being called; only when it seemed like that was their plan. One man approached a window and asked ‘How much’ but he hurried off after she told him to come in. Some people in pairs or small groups were silent while others were talking but I saw no interaction between separate groups. A big, unmarked, black wooden door opened quite frequently with “regular” (based on clothing) looking people – both boys and
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Red Light District girls, mostly young – going in and out. As it was unmarked it was impossible to tell what it was, I assumed a residence, as you needed keys to enter.
My Presence
I did not get much attention when I was outside the souvenir shop or on the bench outside the sex theatre. This was due to the fact that I was able to keep well in on the footpath, away from the road where most people were walking. I therefore do not think that my presence changed the behaviour of anyone in a notable way. I did however notice that when people looked at me, they would look down and see my notebook. This would inspire either a bemused, confused/curious and once or twice a worried look on the person’s face. The worried looks came from men walking alone. The bouncer to the casa rosso noticed me and seemed to look over in interest as to what I was doing. No one approached me or spoke to me.
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Urban Struggle
Red Light District
Date: 23/01/2013
Time: Unknown
Place: Bloedstraat
It's tuesday the 23rd of january and it's a extremely cold winter day with almost minus 5 degrees on play and a little windy. I start today's tour from Bloedstraat, a side street arising from Nieuwmarkt leading to the main street. A arrived with the metro at Nieuwmarkt, where the most crowded place is in the Albert Heijn shop that feeds the local people here.
Who's on the street today?
Compared to yesterday evening I was here, the amount of people here is much lower.
However, there is still girls in the "windows". Most of them look like they have something else to do than to be concerned about what's happening on the street; one is using her mobile phone a bit, another one is doing her nails. The light in the windows is, of course, turned off, even though the curtains are not pulled. Also, I see some police on the street on patrol - they walk in a slow tempo without saying a word to each other. I also saw a police officer of a kind
I have never seen before: He was driving on his mountain bike and had a headset on.
Furthermore, I see some craft workers working on a something in the middle of the canal - it appears to look like either some kind of boat or maybe a raft. These craft workers are looking a lot on me as I take my notes. I also see a man in a telephone box.
The tourists is easy to spot, in my opinion: They where these characteristic camaras and they are clearly prepared for walking in the cold weather, wearing thick clothing and reasonable winter boots. Some of them picks up a map sometimes. Some of them tends to make short stops to watch and talk about the street and area. Usually, here's what they do: They pass a
"dirty window", and in order not to look suspicious, or maybe because they are just embarrassed, they wait to talk or laugh till they passed the area. A lot of these tourists seems to stem from asia, but I have also seen three young lads standing on one of the bridges, having a joint and taking some photos; they might emanate from northern europe, it appears to me at least.
Not all on the street today are (what I think as) tourist, however. Actually, exactly today, most of them seems to have an errand here, or are walking "for/at something". For example, a man just passed me with a little more pace than the characteristic tourist-wander-tempo. He was wearing a very good looking old-style hat, which he tried to keep on his head with an arm.
Another man passing is wearing low-waist jeans and Fila-shirt, and he walks like a gangster starring a Tarantino movie from 90's with a joint in his mouth. He is listening to loud music from his cell phone, and appears to me to really fill out a lot of space, even though his only walking for himself. Another women is coming out from her narrow staircase, and she is gathering some snowballs away from the stairs with her hands and moving them aside, so that the passage is more accessible.
At this time, it appears to me to be 20 percent people who are just looking around (including the tourist), 50 percent people walking in a little faster pace but not looking too much to the surroundings, but in general, there is not many people here today.
The atmosphere today:
Clearly, it is hard to believe that the pulsating nightlife that I have seen here so many times before has actually been taken place in this area. Today it is totally quite. Most places are actually open - bars, windows, museums and sex shows - but most of the places are empty.
During my walk on this street, the atmosphere is characterized by a slow pace and echoing silence. While these streets have appeared to me as some of the most narrow and crowded of all in Amsterdam, there is now plenty of space. Actually so much space that I feel a little bit
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Red Light District shy and embarrassed to be here on my own on a morning like this; what will people think I'm doing here? Normally, it is easy to "hide" behind others and blend in easily, but now everybody is spectacle to everybody. Some of the tourist might think they are here on the wrong time of the day. The people who work here appears to reflect the silence and slow pace today; the girls in the windows are not busy finding costumers. They don't knock on the windows after me like yesterday! The doormen in front of the museums and sex-show-places are talking from the outside to the other staff inside. They look like they do not expect anybody to come at this time of the day.
My appearance and presence:
Paradoxcially, I feel much more ashamed or guilty being at this time of the day, than did I yesterday evening. My deviant and suspicious behavior - writing notes and glancing on everybody on the street - is clearly more noticed than was yesterday. Especially the doormen at the museums can resists starring at me, and it affects me: I walk to a different spot, because
I don't want to disturb the natural "picture" of the area with my presence, even though this might be impossible. Being one of the only ones on the street, I would have expected to attract more attention from the "dirty windows", but this was actually not the case. If it was not for the inhuman cold weather of today, and the fact that we are in Amsterdam and not Siena, I would have expected the "dirty girls" in the windows to celebrate their Siesta.
The buildings and shops
One thing that strikes me is the numbers of english/british-style pubs and bars. Many of the bars tries to create the classic old british style with brown tables, barstools, maybe dart or billiard tables, some english beer brands. Even though most of them are almost empty today, I can hear that some english speaking people are in there. Also many of them has television screen so that they are able to show English Premier League matches; for instance, the one
I'm passing now has a sign in the window saying: "Arsenal - West Ham, tomorrow at 20.45", which is remarkable, as we are in Holland and not England. Funny enough, another sign makes us aware that "this is not a coffee shop" and that they neither sell weed nor pot in there.
All signs are in english. A remarkably similar bar is appearing 30 meters further down the road, having all signs in english and almost the same design, but here, the place is accompaigned by a Hotel.
Also, I notice a couple of the porn/sex-show-places where it appears that you can have a sex show. Just on the staircase down to all of these places a doorman stands, which is a intermediate of a salesman/facer and a controller of the people who enters or maybe a guard.
At the sex-show-place i'm passing now, the doorman are talking to a young, but some "dirty", women from the place (probably); she wears a little short dress but a big white warm down jacket. The doorman is enjoying a hot snack.
After my walk down of both sides of the canal, it appears to me that there are basically three kinds of places here: Coffee shops, sex shows and bars/pubs. In the side street, these places are also accompaigned by tourist shop selling gadgets representing Amsterdam or the
Netherlands; primarily by the symbol of a weed-leaf.
All of a sudden, it appears to be the end of this street. One bridge/road is separating the very identifiable/characteristic street of Red Light from where I'm standing now: a lot of apartments, with no neon sings, no windows, no bars. Pure living quarters. It's a very strict contrast and cut.
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Red Light District
Date: Thursday 24/01/2013
Time: 19.30-20.30
Place: Sint Annendwarsstraat outside ‘Smartzone’.
Location
I chose Sint Annendwarsstraat because I thought it was a good contrast to my previous observation location. I was standing outside a smart shop, which was in the corner of two perpendicular streets so I had a good view of both streets. The streets are relatively short and narrow, causing separate groups and individuals to be closer to each other. I thought this might result in more interaction between them.
The Area
Sint Annendwarsstraat is one of the smaller streets in the Red Light District whose main function seems to be to house the red light windows. Behind me was a scarf shop and the top of the Oude Kerk is visible through the streets but there is no other evidence of a mixture of vice and art. It is a central street, 5minutes or less to walk to dam square. There were two large grey bins in my sight and light came from streetlights, which were attached to the buildings. There was no bike rack but about 7 bike parked outside, leaning against the buildings.
The Environment
The sun had been set for longer than an hour, meaning it was dark and cold when I did my observation. There was a little snow on the ground. It looked like it had not been cleared away but simply melted from people walking on it in certain parts. I was about minus five degrees
Celsius. The sky was a dark grey colour and there were some thick clouds. There was not much wind.
Public/Private Space
Most of the space in the area is private space. The streets are public and they are used as a way of getting to somewhere else otherwise they are mainly used to look at the prostitutes.
The shops are semi private because one cannot look in every part of the shop. The rooms in the buildings above the shops and prostitutes are private. They are unmarked making it impossible to know what they are used for or if they even are being used but they are private nonetheless.
The Buildings
All the buildings in the area are typical Dutch style buildings. They seem to be leaning out slightly over the narrow streets. They are made of reddish/brown bricks with white window and doorframes. Most of the doors are black. Through the street you can see the top of the
Oude Kerk, it is light up by unnatural light and the numbers and hands in its clock are light up individually. At the bottom of the church, some colourful graffiti is visible but illegible. The shop that I stood outside, Smartzone is the most colourful thing in the area at the time. It had a neon green sign saying ‘Smartzone’ underneath there was a green, yellow and white neon outline of a mushroom and underneath that it said ‘Magic Mushrooms’ in neon yellow within a neon red arrow. The shop window displayed a variety or smoking devices, sex items, tourist merchandise and pictures and information about the magic mushrooms.
The Prostitutes
Although were I saw standing I could not see any prostitutes in windows (most of the windows still had their curtains closed) I did notice a small side street which had stairs
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Red Light District leading down to it and seemed to prostitutes one after another going down one side of the street. This was obvious due to the red lights. As the street was very narrow it was filled with men; laughing, talking and looking at the prostitutes. I did not go down the steps but I did notice girls in groups with males would follow them down the stairs. Straight across from where I was standing were four red light windows (two on either side of the corner). It was okay to stand right outside facing them because all the curtains were drawn, however about half an our into my observation a girl dressed in a white bikini opened the curtains revealing one quite large room which she had all for herself- for the time being anyway. As soon as she opened her curtains she noticed me and gave me a negative glance so I moved down the street a bit.
Noise
Noise came from the church bells, which chimed on the half hour and on the hour. Other noise came from the people on the streets. People laughing, talking and walking up and down the streets. Groups of young people were the loudest. I did not hear noise from anyone working in the area. Although when the woman who was closing the scarf shop was leaving, she banged the door quite loudly twice.
Safety
I did not see any suspicious or dangerous activities. People did not seem concerned with their safety, they were just enjoying themselves. People who were lost (I was able to overhear them) seemed less comfortable in the area. I never felt unsafe but I did feel more uncomfortable during this observation as strangers would notice me, say something and walk very close past me. I did not see any police go through the area in my hour there. I noticed a few black security cameras.
Users
As the streets were narrow, there were probably never more than 50 people on the streets at one time. People are wrapped up warm. Mostly wearing dark trousers or jeans and dark coats
(navy, black, dark green, grey). The next most common coat colour was red. The first group who I noticed were an Italian family all wearing the same blue jacket. People walked alone, in couples and in groups. Groups were never larger than 7 people. Tourist groups took their time walking through the streets, talking, laughing and looking around. Individuals walked faster through the streets, not taking in their environment, simply using them as a way to get from place to place. People took interest in the smart shop and the red light windows but I did not see anyone go into the scarf shop. I saw fewer women than men but not in extreme numbers, and no children. Women were never alone. Ethnicities varied a lot, but there were mostly
Europeans. I only saw one interaction between strangers when a man asked another man for a lighter. A large mixed group of older Asians walk by the prostitute’s window that I am opposite. Not one of their head’s turn to look at her or acknowledge her. Mixed in this group are two younger boys, in their 20’s who deliberately turn their heads to stare at her even as they are walking away. Although I heard some locals (speaking Dutch) I saw mostly tourists.
I noticed a young man who was also standing alone on the street for the hour I was there. He was tall, large and bald, wearing dark jeans, a red jumper and a black waistcoat. He was pacing around near the steps leading down to the street with only prostitutes. There seemed to be a reason he was there but impossible to say for sure.
My Presence
My presence had an obvious impact on the situation. There was nowhere to stand that was really out of the way or somewhere people wouldn’t notice me taking notes. I think everyone
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Red Light District who walked by me saw me. Individuals looked curiously at me and at my notebook. Couples and groups sometimes said something to each other after noticing my notebook. One English mixed-gender group of about 6 or 7 noticed me and pointed and loudly laughed about how I was watching them and taking notes. They seemed quite drunk. I was spoken to twice, once by a woman asking what I was doing and once by another woman who very sternly warned me about being careful who I was taking photos of. I told her I was taking photos of the buildings and she wasn’t in them. Although my presence was obvious to everyone and it inspired curiosity or amusement to some people, I do not think it changed anyone’s behaviour in a notable way.
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Red Light District
Interview Guide
1. Introduction
Background questions as age, profession, what they are doing in the areas right now, what they normally do in the area etc.
If shop owner/ bar owner / staff: ask if they were there before the local government made changes or if they came because of these changes
2. General safety
How safe do you feel in red light district? And why?
3. Specific initiatives
Can you mention some specific activities / changes that have made the area more / less safe for you, and which?
4. Situation
What would be a situation from the area where you felt safe/unsafe?
5. Security systems
Bar/shop-owners: do you contribute to more safety in the area? If yes, how? What kind of security system do you have and why?
Users: what makes this area safe? Have you been aware of any security activities/systems in the area? If yes – which?
Observation Guide

How is the psychical space (buildings, weather, colors, streets etc.)

Safety equipment/ police other things
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Why is it public
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Is it open/closed
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Who is controlling it

Actors: who act? What do they do? What do they look like? Do/how do they interact with the environment and other people? Who are they talking with? Etc.
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