In a previous job I spent a lot of time travelling around the UK, and visited a few very run-down, former industrial cities. The RLDs were uniformly shit, depressing places, fairly easy to spot when you'd accidentally strayed into one even during the daytime, and even in broad daylight I felt a lingering unease. They simply aren't good to be in, and they make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - they can feel pretty threatening.
The only time I've deliberately gone into a RLD, I felt pretty safe and it had a real party atmosphere. The fact it was Saturday night in Amsterdam probably had something to do with it - the place was lit up like the Blackpool illuminations!