Sex, hard cash and legal prostitution: Villa Tinto and the real Queens of Antwerp

“No”, said the bored Antwerp police officer, “there’s basically nothing we can do if unknown drunken men on their way to the prostitution zone vandalize your property”. While the Antwerp Villa Tinto Mega brothel opening once promised a sanitized, safe, controlled and most profitable way of handling prostitution, the city of Antwerp almost completely ignored the people living between the hookers and Town hall – a 15 minute walk of shame. This area has been battling for years with the most unpleasant side effects of tolerated and now legalized prostitution: the customers who roam our streets at night. No matter how many security cams we install, our walls are still spray-canned and our property vandalized. In case of a non urgent incident it easily takes up to an hour for a police patrol to arrive. Budget cutbacks at night.

While it may seem great living in the historic heart of a medieval city, in the end legal prostitution (and more specifically, its customers and associated street criminals) doesn’t mix with peaceful living. Let’s face it: Antwerp has made a clear choice: it pockets millions in ‘prostitution tax’ and has sold out the historic downtown/riverbanks to the the tourist industry and, even more lucrative, to the powerful developers of countless upscale lofts/condos-for-the-rich. There are elections coming up in June. We won’t forget.

OK, now you’ve seen what legal prostitution looks like. Care for a place like this in your residential neighborhood?