Amsterdam to Clean Up Sex-and-Drugs Tourism in Post-Virus Reboot

As the coronavirus pandemic raged in March and April, the 500-year-old Amsterdam city-center became a ghost town: The scantily clad sex workers in brothel windows in small alleys like Stoofsteeg in the red-light district were gone, as were the hordes of tourists who come there to gawk at them; Coffee shops on historic plazas like Rembrandtplein and Leidseplein didn’t get the visitors who descend upon the city by the thousands for the cannabis they sell.

By driving away the more than 1 million tourists the city gets on average each month -- surpassing its population -- the virus lifted the veil on something that had been in plain sight for years: local Amsterdammers have lost the city’s historic center.