Have you ever seen a red light district in real life?

Yes, Amsterdam.

a few streets.

Indeed, red lights abounded.

Yep, in San Francisco. There’s a neighborhood in San Francisco called “North Beach” and it’s infamous for its nightclubs and sex district. Prostitution isn’t legal here obviously, but nonetheless, there are “massage parlors” there that may be more than they appear to be. :]

Mostly along Broadway through the North Beach area, and yes, there are red lights in the windows of some of these places.

Yes, Amsterdam and Paris. Lights, lights everywhere, mostly red but not all. Amsterdam is particularly beautiful because of the lights reflected in the canals.

Yes. New York, NY, Vancouver, BC , San Francisco, Wilmington, DE, Portland, OR, Austin, TX, though I think Vancouver, BC may have been the only one that actually had red lights, but I could just be misremembering or imagining it. And have I seen streets filled with prostitutes just about everywhere? Yes, that too.

Yes. Saw it in Singapore. It has a suburbian red light district in Geylang, which covers two streets that run parallel to each other, and the adjoining road in between them. While there aren’t any streets here, many of the houses-turned-brothels have specially made lights with their house numbers on it to make them easy to spot.

@lillycoyote

Where’s the red light district in NYC?

Yeah, Chiang Mai is a city in Thailand that had a block. I don’t remember too many red lights, but there was money to be made and sex to be had.

@sandalman are there any red lights involved in that situation in Singapore?

Almost. I’ve been by the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, but not in it. It’s enclosed and I was told they won’t let any women in unless they’re prostitutes (though apparently they can’t stop you if you do go in). That said I saw a lot of prostitutes. They line up at the corners and try to grab men waiting for the walk signal. It’s across from a police station. The whole thing was a little bizarre.

Yes, I’ve ahem seen the red light district in several cities in Asia. One area in Fukuoka, Japan is quite large, occupying many city blocks. The red light district in Bangkok is enormous. Sadly, there were no red lights though.

Amsterdam, large area, yes, lots of lights.
@lillycoyote, where in Portland, OR? When were you here?

Sorry about the typo in my original answer. I’ve never seen any. What I see instead are those numbered lights I told you about.

@zzc I lived in Portland from 1975 to 1986. From 1981 to 1984 I worked in a bookstore on Taylor Street that was across the street from what was the center of teenage prostitution in Portland.

Colfax, in Denver. I actually lived just a few blocks away from it for a few years. Not really any red lights, just lots of hookers and coke.

Yes, like @DominicX , I went to the district in San Francisco. As I understand it, the section of the city is reserved for being a red light district and it is as classy as it is possible for such an area to be.

Washington, DC, 14th Street. No red lights, but plenty of prostitutes. Though I hear it’s been ‘cleaned up’ now.

Yes in Yokohama- along the canal -about half a km long. There were red lights.
The Boston Combat zone. No lights just street walking
Amsterdam. Easy window shopping with wares displayed. I don’t recall seeing red lights. Just “headlights”

Amsterdam’s.

@LostInParadise San Francisco doesn’t really have a red light “district”, although a lot of strip clubs and sex act clubs are on Broadway in North Beach. But there is a lot of the same in the Tenderloin, which also has a lot of street girls. If you’re into the leather scene you can go to clubs around Folsom Street. And there are lots of other places for picking up street prostitutes, both gay and straight. But there is no district with brothels like in Amsterdam.