Total overhaul for Amsterdam city centre
Monday 17 December 2007
The oldest part of Amsterdam city centre is to get a major facelift costing
hundreds of millions of euros, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.
The project involves a sharp reduction in the amount of prostitution, an
overhaul of hotels and bars and efforts to bring in high-value retail.
The city council, police, tax office, housing corporations, investment funds and
private investors such as the Hotel Krasnapolsky are all involved in the
project.
'It is time to step in,' council finance chief Lodewijk Asscher told the
Volkskrant. 'The days when the prettiest part of the old city was in the hands
of petty crime are over.'
In particular, prostitution will be removed from the area around the Oude Kerk
church, which will be brought back to life as a cultural centre.
The city also wants the legal age for prostitution to be raised from 18 to 21
and more efforts to ban pimping and forced prostitution. These measures require
national legislation, but have the support of a majority of MPs.
The Damrak, which leads into the city from central station, will also be
completely restructured to get rid of the numerous souvenir and drugs coffee
shops and connections to organised crime.
'We will use every measure at our disposal,' Asscher told the Volkskrant.
The total revamp, nicknamed Project 1012 after the city centre postcode, is
expected to take some 10 years. |