Amsterdam Wrestles With Image

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) Schelto Patijn was trying to sell a skeptical
audience on Amsterdam's charm, culture and canals when the usually
unflappable mayor lost his cool.

Patijn is used to fielding questions about the Dutch capital's redlight
district and decriminalized drug coffeeshops. But he gave the foreign press
corps a piece of his mind when Amsterdam's seedy side overshadowed a news
conference about next week's European Union summit.

``Is this a criminal, dirty, drugs city? Come on! What nonsense,'' he
snapped, his irritation replayed on the evening news. ``Amsterdam is what it
is. If we aren't dignified enough to hold a summit, not one city in Europe
is.''

Though many Amsterdammers are blase about how bohemian their city can be, the
June 1617 summit is prompting others to come to grips with the capital's
persistent image problem.

For Dutch newspapers, magazines and television stations, it has become almost
an obsession. Foreigners are interviewed about their first impressions, and
the replies are variations on a theme: sex and drugs.

Amsterdam's drug scene is so legendary that people laughingly assumed Hillary
Rodham Clinton had it in mind when she said that she and President Clinton,
visiting recently, would ``not be able to enjoy many activities that he
enjoyed as a student.'' The president visited Amsterdam while a student at
Oxford, where he asserts he tried marijuana but didn't inhale.

Inhaling, however, is both a tradition and a tourist attraction in Amsterdam.
Small amounts of marijuana and hashish are freely sold and smoked in more
than 150 socalled ``coffeeshops'' that cater to cannabisloving adults.

In the heart of the old town, bikiniclad prostitutes pout at passersby from
behind plateglass windows in Amsterdam's 200 or so brothels. Like the
marijuana and hash, the sex isn't exactly legal, but it is tolerated by
authorities who look the other way.

Eyebrows went up across the EU when the Dutch, who hold the bloc's rotating
presidency, decided to host their summit in the capital. The assumption was
that they would select instead The Hague, the sleepy seaside seat of the
government, or the southern city of Maastricht, where a landmark EU treaty
was signed in 1992.

``A dignity deficit,'' one columnist snorted, pointing to Amsterdam's
honkytonk image and the phallusshaped sculptures and fountains that dot the
redlight district. There was more snickering when activists announced plans
for a Sex Summit alongside the EU gathering to explore sexual freedom in
Europe.

In a preemptive move, Amsterdam has launched a public relations campaign to
trumpet its pride over its cobblestone charm, medieval roots, Venicelike
canals, picturepostcard bridges and worldclass museums.

``Amsterdam, Capital of Inspiration,'' billboards around the city declare.
Yet even its backers concede the signs can't conceal the seediness.

On a recent afternoon near the Frederiksplein, the sprawling downtown park
where the summit will be held, a young woman with green hair and a nose ring
waited nonchalantly for a traffic light to change, her rusty Subaru stuffed
with marijuana plants.

``Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. We know the story well,'' said Loek
Hieselaar, chief of Amsterdam Promotion.

The mayor denies that Amsterdam is quietly trying to clean up its act ahead
of the summit. Indeed, apart from ordering newsstands to move racks of
sexually explicit postcards off the sidewalks and sell them more discreetly
inside, the city has adopted a defiant takeusorleaveus attitude.

Though 5,000 officers will patrol during the summit ``to make Amsterdam a
cozy place,'' police spokesman Klaas Wilting says the brothels and drug
shops will remain open.

``Sure, we have our problems. What city doesn't?'' said Jack Draaisma, who
oversees a neighborhood watch patrol in a troubled district. ``Our problems
aren't Amsterdam problems, they're bigcity problems.''