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American-Dutch person here. This article misses a few key points. 1) Dutch softdrug laws are heavily influenced by other/bigger EU countries like France and It

American-Dutch person here. This article misses a few key points. 1) Dutch softdrug laws are heavily influenced by other/bigger EU countries like France and Italy that don't like their citizens visiting NL and using, or bringing back drugs. Hence the closings of coffee shops in border areas. 2) Closing of window prostitution in Amsterdam is a completely different issue than closing of coffeeshops. There might be a moral argument for both, but in my cynical mind most of the windows being shutdown have more to do with snapping up key real estate in the middle of the city than anything else. Some people claim it is about cleaning up the criminality, but I think it's just connected people getting better access to good real estate. 3) There might be a real estate angle to the closing of coffeeshops as well, but I'm not as familiar with it to really say. Amsterdam, like other major cities, has started to see an influx in foreign capital buying up homes for investment purposes. It's rather disgusting and has lead to rises in home prices in the city.

Freestyler_3 10y ago
on 2. the official statements have always been that it is to stop human trafficking (indeed cleaning up criminals). If there is a conspiracy behind it, I don't know. on 3. I know that in my city the coffeeshop rents the building, rent protection law does not allow the owner to kick a renter out without very good reason (not going to get specific here). The owner (renting company) wants the coffeeshop out, it has tried more than once. They want to re-purpose the building and make more money of the big building in the centre of the city.
- mercer 10y ago
  My guess would be that is that it's not an outright conspiracy, but opportunism by individual actors (circumvrenting rent protection for example, or populism) combined with a general push toward making the city center more proper for all sorts of reasons that affect a lot of popular cities (rising value, 'fancy' tourists, etc.). I think it's a sign of a bigger societal/urban change, and that the bigger, underlying problem is rapidly increasing segregation. My experience with any coffeeshop is that the vast majority of its clientele is, off the top of my head: 1) left-wingish 'hippie' type, 2) muslims/'ethnic' groups, 3) working-class individuals or 4) a certain subset of tourists. Most coffeeshops have at least a whiff of seediness. anyways, what all these groups have in common is that they're not particularly liked by those who have a stake in the future of urban centers. These places should be clean, expensive, commercial, and acceptable to as many people as possible.
- mst 10y ago
  Given the net result is pushing sex work into illegal spaces, thereby making trafficking and other exploitation harder to report, I'd say that the most likely actual reasons behind said official statements are (a) moral puritanism of various forms (b) hidden commercial interests. As to how much of which, stuffed if I know (and even ignoring real estate, the funding and attention given to 'rescue organisations' as part of soi-disant anti-trafficking efforts probably gives them at least an incentive under both a and b). Though "pressure from an increasing level of (a) at The Hague" also seems plausible. (tl;dr - I dunno exactly, I doubt there's a conspiracy as such, but I also don't believe the official reasons are even close to the whole story)

Freestyler_3 10y ago

on 2. the official statements have always been that it is to stop human trafficking (indeed cleaning up criminals). If there is a conspiracy behind it, I don't know. on 3. I know that in my city the coffeeshop rents the building, rent protection law does not allow the owner to kick a renter out without very good reason (not going to get specific here). The owner (renting company) wants the coffeeshop out, it has tried more than once. They want to re-purpose the building and make more money of the big building in the centre of the city.

mercer 10y ago
My guess would be that is that it's not an outright conspiracy, but opportunism by individual actors (circumvrenting rent protection for example, or populism) combined with a general push toward making the city center more proper for all sorts of reasons that affect a lot of popular cities (rising value, 'fancy' tourists, etc.). I think it's a sign of a bigger societal/urban change, and that the bigger, underlying problem is rapidly increasing segregation. My experience with any coffeeshop is that the vast majority of its clientele is, off the top of my head: 1) left-wingish 'hippie' type, 2) muslims/'ethnic' groups, 3) working-class individuals or 4) a certain subset of tourists. Most coffeeshops have at least a whiff of seediness. anyways, what all these groups have in common is that they're not particularly liked by those who have a stake in the future of urban centers. These places should be clean, expensive, commercial, and acceptable to as many people as possible.
mst 10y ago
Given the net result is pushing sex work into illegal spaces, thereby making trafficking and other exploitation harder to report, I'd say that the most likely actual reasons behind said official statements are (a) moral puritanism of various forms (b) hidden commercial interests. As to how much of which, stuffed if I know (and even ignoring real estate, the funding and attention given to 'rescue organisations' as part of soi-disant anti-trafficking efforts probably gives them at least an incentive under both a and b). Though "pressure from an increasing level of (a) at The Hague" also seems plausible. (tl;dr - I dunno exactly, I doubt there's a conspiracy as such, but I also don't believe the official reasons are even close to the whole story)