@Farid:


"Justice Department to finish the job City Council started"

The guy in the video is a District Attorney/Public Prosecutor for the Justice Department

He says there's going to be a special DA for the RLD, to improve cooperation between City Council and the Justice Department, and between the different branches within the Justice Department itself (street crime, major crime, etc.).

Then there's a voice-over with some general info on City Council plans:
Over a 10 year period they want to:
-close 239 windows
-cut down the number of coffeeshops in half
-close all the sex-shops

Finally they ask the Justice Department spokesperson if he feels there is a "hetze" (don't know the english word, something like a defamation campaign) against the RLD.

He replies that he wants to look at it strictly from a business-like point of view. So he'll only act if there's any concrete evidence, problems, criminals, etc, in the RLD.

239 windows!!!!!!!

Very sad :-(

"This doesnt make sense. seriously why cant they just step up law enforccement and have more undercover cops and police taking care of the criminal elements. Also why can 't they just investigate the places that are laundering money and only shut them down. Also i've never seen drug dealers oin trompset and the neighboring streets so why shut those down. Isn't there something fishy going on? I swear they better not put a starbucks on trompset! i'll never visit A'dam again if they do"

But wouldn't it be great to smoke a doobie in starbucks. The True meaning of "coffeeshop"

"Ill have a Venti Americano and 5 grams of AK47"

But if you want some of those liberties you gotta thump some heads, and I think that as liberal as The Dutch are They are afraid to thump a few heads. I was in China a few months back and believe me the tourist rules. In heavily populated areas there are law enforcement officials out on the prowl not just protecting tourists from pick-pockets and petty theft, but also pulling away beggars. They want your money!

What would Amsterdam be without the Red Light District---Bruges.

They fact is these politicians know where the money is, they are not going to cut off their nose to spite their face. If Human trafficking and Hard Drugs the a problem, Thump some heads. Put the pinch on organized crime, the problem is that generally organized crime is a multi-headed monster that politicians cant easily kill. Corruption, bribes, etc.
How do you solve that problem, Put Eliot Ness on the Case.....and thump some heads.

You know why tourists never get accidently run over by cars in China? Because the offender will go to jail, or worse.

If all of this does happen, screw the Netherlands.. I'm taking my mongering business to Germany in the future!

Thank you slick for this valuable translation :)

Maybe your first trip to Amsterdam, you will go into a lot of coffee shops.

The truth is there could be no coffee shops, just a couple of California style weed ATMS on the side of a building and people would still come.

Where else in Europe does the Simpsons come on everyday in English?

DIE SIMPSONS. Fuck that German bullshit.

I know I would certainly miss one one of my most enjoyable walking (exercise?) areas of the world if the closures happened. Damn, I always thought I would retire there, but maybe Khao Lak is looking better now.

I thought 240 windows was the number of windows the City Council wanted to keep, not to close. Unless 240 windows is half the RLD, so they close 240 windows, and it still remains 240 windows?

Source : http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=683353

There is approximately 550 windows before this closing thing started last year,so with the ones already closed it must mean half of the windows will remain.

don't know why they ruined themselve..is tourism without rld is so strong!!!

I have seen some old posts pulled forward over the years.
Most are scammers.
I stumbled across this by accident.
A treasure trove of thoughts on what might happen if Amsterdam cracked down from 2008, when the plans first came out.
We were complaining about the Wallen possibly going down to 240 windows,
43 coffeeshops were targeted to close for being within 250 meters of a school by 2011.
The sex shops were all to be banned.

16 years later we all know what really happened.
The Wallen is below 240 windows.
Over 100 coffeeshops within 1000 meters of a school were closed.
The sex shops are untouched.
Nobody visits Antwerp or Brussels.
A starbucks did not appear on Tromp.
Greenhoff is alive and well.
The city is STILL yapping about an Erotic Center, still unfunded, to be built somewhere? in 10 years.
The Krasnapolsky and Bijnkorpf did not move in.
And Bluto, in a fit of revenge so brilliant that it brings a tear to my eye, protested the closure of Tromp by moving to the Netherlands!

Oh, you are welcome!

Weasel

One of the things I miss is walking around Trompettersteeg area in a drunken haze with my eyes popping out.

The RLD is what made tourism so popular and attractive in Amsterdam.
Without it, there is not as much interest in travelling to the city.