Residents have confronted the Amsterdam mayor over a controversial plan to move legal prostitution from the city’s historic red light district to a suburban “erotic center”.

In a meeting hall in the south of the city, hundreds of angry locals who do not want a “mega brothel” on their doorstep found themselves on the same side as sex workers who want to stay in their red neon booths.

Caught in the middle is Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, who is sticking to a plan that few people seem to like despite being branded a “brothel madame” by opponents.

Halsema has proposed three sites for a 100-room erotic center in the city’s south, to shutter the current red light district that has been at the center of complaints about crime, drunkenness, and drug abuse in the area.

But sex workers insist they want to stay in the “Wallen” red light district – which has been a center for prostitution since the 16th century – and say they are being used as scapegoats.

“The mayor says we are just a tourist attraction and people come and laugh at us,” one sex worker who gave her name as Michelle told AFP after the meeting. She insisted “that’s just not the case”.

While it would take several years before any new “erotic center” will take shape, the city municipality is aiming to decide on the location by the end of the year.

And Halsema was resigned to the fact there will “always be protests, there will always be resistance, whatever the solution we choose”.

In March, dozens of protesters wearing marks and carrying “Save the Red Light” banners confronted the mayor at city hall, saying the plan for “Project 1012 2.0” – a reference to the district’s area code – was unsafe and harmful to their livelihoods.

The mayor was also accused of harming the Netherlands by driving away business.

The European Medicines Agency has been caught up in the fight, opposing the fact that two of the proposed new sites are near its new headquarters – where it moved after Brexit.

But, according to AFP, Halsema insists they “know what city they’re based in”.

She argues the new erotic center would not cause any danger and would, in fact, be more secure for sex workers.

But sex workers like Michelle dispute that.

“If you’re already inside that’s fine, but you also have to go out with your earnings,” she told AFP.

She argued the 100 booths for sex workers in the erotic center were far fewer than the 250 spots in the red light district.

However, she did concede some would benefit from the center, with its spaces for rest, art, culture, and “erotic” entertainment, as long as the plan was not to shut down the red light district altogether.

Former sex worker Alexander de Vos – who was among the March protest against the plans and against increasingly restrictive measures in the Wallen – told AFP that Amsterdam’s red light district is only a “small part” of prostitution in the Dutch capital.

He said trans and gay sex workers have “no place” in the city, but “this center offers them an option”. But he still did not support closing the red light district.

The red light district faces a spate of restrictions, including earlier closing times for brothels on weekends, and a ban on smoking cannabis – which can be readily purchased at the city’s coffee shops – in the district, which come into effect in mid-May.

The city also launched a “Stay Away” campaign aimed at “nuisance” tourists who visit the city for alcohol, sex, and drugs.

The district, Michelle told AFP, was now “full of signs about everything that’s forbidden”, but no one gets fined.

“It would be a good start if the municipality would actually apply the existing rules,” she said.

The measures have been likened to a “witch hunt” by protesters, who have argued moving prostitution would only impact workers’ livelihoods and not address the problems facing the neighborhood.

“It’s very safe here, very well organized, why fix something that isn’t broken?” Michelle asked.

“It seems like it’s a plan for gentrification.”

Mayor Halsema has also made plans to make Amsterdam more liveable for its residents, as the city grapples with over-tourism and a housing shortage.

The city is fighting for its future, as authorities try to shed its ‘sin city’ image and ease the impact of mass tourism while holding onto what makes it Amsterdam.