Red Light, Green Light

Regarding Susan Spano’s column on Amsterdam’s Red Light District (“Holland’s Wallen Neighborhood Draws Many Tourists, but This One Will Pass,” Her World, Dec. 17): While I regularly read and mostly enjoy the Travel section, I was disturbed by another one of Spano’s articles critical of a European country or organization.

First, I don’t think we need any moralizing on how the Dutch regulate and control themselves. Second, the comments in that article did not belong in the Travel section. Maybe they should have been in the religion pages.

Spano has a history of criticizing others, so as the saying goes, “before looking at the speck in someone else’s eye,” better look at the state of streetwalkers in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

PAUL PETZI

Los Angeles

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On a recent trip to the Netherlands, our family, like Spano, passed up a visit to Amsterdam’s red light district, much to the disappointment of my young-adult son. Why waste time on such a dubious tourist attraction when Amsterdam has so much to offer: the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, fabulous architecture and, yes, even the Heineken brewery.

MARGARET HARGRAVE

Simi Valley