Amsterdam To Close Brothels, Weed Cafes
By Wyatt Earp | December 8, 2008
Sons of bitches!
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven.
The city is targeting businesses that “generate criminality,” including gambling parlors, and the so-called “coffee shops” where marijuana is sold openly. Also targeted are peep shows, massage parlors and souvenir shops used by drug dealers for money-laundering.
“I think that the new reality will be more in line with our image as a tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals” said Lodewijk Asscher, a city council member and one of the main proponents of the plan. (H/T – Drudge)
I have a serious question. (I know; hard to believe, isn’t it?) These shops and cafes have been around for eons. Why did it take so long for Amsterdam officials to realize that they generated a criminal element? Who the Hell is running that police force? Barney Fife?!!
Topics: WTF? | 9 Comments »
You don’t suppose that they are taking this action because said establishments are offensive to the ROP?
Naaah, it couldn’t be.
A.O.P. – Oh, perish the thought! Heh.
I wouldn’t be all that surprised if the ROP had its sticky little hand in this. The ROP is growing as a percentage of the population in the Netherlands. I sniff trouble in the upcoming years.
How much do you want to bet that within two years they’ll be complaining about the drop in tourism and associated revenue? It’s likely that a lot of non-criminals go to Amsterdam just to see all this in person, whether they partake or not. Take away the freak show, you take away the reason for coming to see the freak show.
I live about an hour and half from Daytona Beach (FL) and they did something along these lines. They closed a bunch of the old, profitable hotels and tourist shops using eminent domain, demolished a large section of the Boardwalk, closed off sections of the beach to traffic, started cracking down on bikers and college kids that got rowdy during Spring Break and Bike Week, flooded the streets with police during Black College Reunion, and essentially made it difficult to get wild in Daytona without getting arrested. Their excuse was that they were trying to promote “Family Friendly Tourism” and they just wanted families to come to town.
The result of all this “improvement”? Well, their new boardwalk area is gorgeous. They have a giant parking garage that replaced a large stretch of parking on the beach. All kinds of nifty places… that aren’t being used, because they drove their base out of town. The college kids are going to Pensacola for SB now, MTV doesn’t set up in Daytona any more, there’s fewer tourists in general. The bikers are still showing up, but they’re doing most of the raunchy stuff at campgrounds that are outside of DB city limits. And their money, all of which used to be spent inside the city, is getting spread out to other places. The city council is whining that their revenue is down, they’re jacking up taxes and other costs on the people who live there year round, and generally going “woe is me”. The law of unintended consequences bit them right in the butt. What’s sad is that anyone with any sense that wasn’t inside Daytona knew what would happen.
I used to go to Daytona four or five times a year, sometimes once a month. I don’t think I’ve been there for at least two years now. Keep in mind, I’m almost 40, I have a wife and kids, I don’t drink, I don’t party, and usually stayed away from there during Spring Break and Bikefest anyway. But the changes were enough that DB isn’t interesting anymore.
Amsterdam is trying to do the right thing, get rid of criminals. They have good intentions. I understand why they’re doing it. I just know that they’re not thinking ahead to the obvious conclusion of “We’re going to all lose money doing this, and this will cause problems for legitimate businesses.” Thing is, criminals go where there’s money to be made. They’d have stalls in Disney World if they could get away with it. It’s less about the sex and weed than it is about the money that can be picked up. Kind of a chicken/egg thing.
Sorry for the long post. I don’t post often, so hopefully that makes up for it.
Hey, I though that legalizing all that stuff was supposed to take the criminal element out of it. What’s up with that?
I’m sure that, somehow, this is Bush’s fault.
Ky person – Pretty soon, they’ll have the same problems as Britain is having.
Phillip – I was in Daytona in 2001 for the Pepsi 400. I thought Daytona was nothing like I imagined it would be. You’re right: take away the freak show, and you take away tourism.
John D – Apparently, they miscalculated.
Doghouse – Rove you magnificent bastard!
“Criminals flock to these places,” Amsterdam officials were heard to say recently, with a resounding >thap< to the forehead. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”
BZ
Damn,…there goes my next European vacation. Guess I’ll have to settle on Italy.