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 ¡ª surpassing its population ¡ª the virus lifted the veil on something that had been in plain sight for years: local Amsterdammers have lost the city¡¯s historic center.
Now, a fight is on to reclaim it.
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