[Thervicarl]

Amsterdam seems to have gotten better thanks to the pandemic. I go there on a regular basis to visit relatives with kids so I mostly visit parks and playgrounds and the drastic reduction of "bachelor party" type of tourists (coming for alcohol, drugs and prostitutes) has made the city a lot more pleasant to wander around.

Residents seem to have come to the same realization as it looks like they are going to outlaw selling drugs to tourists and move the red light district out of the city.

That being said, as long as there is still the museum/culture tourism and the many wealthy expatriates coming for the quality of life, I do not see the prices dropping back enough to make a difference for regular/local people.

[jacquesm]

Yes, I've heard more people say that the pandemic has helped make Amsterdam more liveable. But the same kind of backlash that is hitting Venice might happen there too. Essentially the pandemic has given us a short term window on alternative modes and some of those will hopefully stick (such as: work from home and a general reluctance to travel).

Agreed on the wealthy expats and that the locals will likely not return to the inner city. There just is too much money involved. I grew up all over Amsterdam and checked the prices for each of the places where I lived (that info is public) and was quite shocked to see that in spite of being fairly well off I probably could only afford the smallest (a 55 square meter apartment on Ferdinand Bol straat).