A proposal from the Labor Party (PvdA) was adopted unanimously in the municipal council on Thursday. PvdA faction leader Lian Heinhuis believes the brown bar is part of the soul of Amsterdam. However, more and more of those “iconic places” are disappearing, such as Café Roy Nellis in Jordaens or Café Verhoef in Zedek. After all, they must make room for big money, the PvdA believes. “As one Amsterdam bar owner put it so well: The cleansing of the city is becoming increasingly evident,” Heinehuis says. “The identity of a city should not be determined by who has the most money.”
The council wants the municipality to draw up a map of private brown bars. This makes it possible to monitor how many brown bars disappear. Pubs that have not yet become such can be classified as municipal landmarks. The monumental status of the municipality means, among other things, that this part of the pub’s interior simply cannot be changed. Starting a project at UNESCO should also protect brown bars. Heinhuis says combining the different proposals should ensure “brown pubs, which are of cultural, historical, social and economic importance to our city, do not disappear from the street scene”.
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