Proposition K. Legalized hanky panky?

"In this live-and-let-live town, where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores and an annual fair celebrates sadomasochism, prostitutes could soon walk the streets without fear of arrest.

San Francisco would become the first major U.S. city to decriminalize prostitution if voters next month approve Proposition K, a measure that forbids local authorities from investigating, arresting or prosecuting anyone for selling sex.

Proponents say the measure will free up $11 million the police spend each year arresting prostitutes and allow them to form collectives."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/21/san.francisco.prostitution.ap/index.html

I foresee an increase in business trips to San Francisco.

 

darnit.... just another place i won't be allowed to go by myself.

 

Tolerated prostitution can bring additional problems to the community. I would not go to certain parts of Shinjuku, Japan at night, regardless of strong police presence. Increase in gang violence, kidnapping, theft, and police corruption. Not a place to be even for the natives. Prostitution in Japan is illegal but little is done to enforce the laws.

That may not be the case in Australia where prostitution is governed by state law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Australia

If you are allowed to travel to San Francisco, you may have to carry a gps unit at all times and submit to periodic security screenings as to your whereabouts.

 

So, the authorities are forbidden to investigate, arrest, or prosecute you for selling sex. Can they investigate, arrest, or prosecute you for buying sex? How about for brokering the deal?

 

Proposition K failed, but it did get 41% of the vote. Without commenting on the social impact or moral aspect, I would not be surprised if a major US city were to decriminalize or outright legalize prostitution (in some form) within my lifetime.

 

Aw, damn!!!

 

still legal in parts of Nevada:

http://prostitution.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=119#3

bottom of page....

 

There is always the escort service. If the willing party is interested, some money for college and make the hanky panky seem like it was unpaid. Yes, there are both male and female escorts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer_prostitution_scandal

 

I never understand why the government has to get in the way of two consenting adults who wish to trade money for sex, fighting child prostitution and the like fine, but two adults. And if its taxed and regulated as a business wouldn't that reduce street prostitution and let the authorities get extra money to fight illegal sex trade practices.

A simple analogy we pay two men to go into a ring with gloves and pound the brains out of each other, and pay them well, since that is a sport. Isn't sex work not really the same two adults in a transaction to rent the use of the other for a period of time and no one usually gets hurt?

I'm disabled in a wheelchair and frankly my main and only sexual outlet are hiring women for their services, men who may not have a partner have needs and some dating is not likely to happen. I think its cruel to make something so innocent illegal for adults when it fills a need and frankly has for thousands of years.

 

I think that San Francisco voted down legalized prostitution because voters feared that it would increase the low-life quotient in nice neighborhoods.

Prostitution is associated with drug-dealing (many prostitutes are addicts) and street violence. Many prostitutes are infected with and transmit VD and HIV. And just having whores working the street-corners kind of lowers a neighborhood's tone. (San Francisco is pretty upscale.)

I think that most San Francisco voters would support legalized prostitution if the associated-crime problem was taken care of, if the public-health dangers were eliminated... and if legalized prostitution didn't invade their neighborhood. Nobody has proposed a credible way to do all that yet. Rich neighborhoods say put it in the poor neighborhoods. Poor neighborhoods protest that they already have enough problems and don't need the rest of the city shitting on them.

As things currently stand, prostitution is illegal in San Francisco, but cops kind of tolerate it as long as it doesn't get out of hand. It's practiced rather openly in the Tenderloin and parts of the Mission, neighborhoods poplated by many transients in SRO hotels where the junkies and psychiatric populations end up.

The fact that prostitution is illegal gives the police a stick that they can use to motivate the whores to move on (or be arrested) and helps keep them away from the downtown hotels, tourist sites, convention facilities and family neighborhoods.

 

Why not just ban street protsitution and increase fines and penalties for that, then ignore those working incall at their homes or outcall by appointment and legalize brothels zoned into adult areas charging a good amount for licensing to pay for the increased enforcement. Running it into a shady underground industry is not exactly good the government then has no oversight and allows for clear problems that are happening.

 

And what are SRO hotels?

 

Yeah...because if the government had oversight then I am sure that things would run really well, just ask Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac...

 

Are we suggesting that the government's management abilities (or, rather, the lack thereof) are such that they could manage to run government-owned brothels into bankruptcy?

 

Single Room Occupancy Hotels

"The expression "single room occupancy" or, more commonly "SRO", may refer to a building that houses people in single rooms, or to the single room dwelling type itself.[citation needed] Tenants of buildings with multiple SROs often share bathrooms and/or kitchens, while SROs in buildings with mixed dwelling types may include kitchenettes or half-baths."

"San Francisco similarly passed an SRO Hotel Conversion Ordinance in 1980, which restricts the conversion of SRO hotels to tourist use. SROs are prominent in the Tenderloin, Mission District and Chinatown communities. In 2001, San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly sponsored legislation making it illegal for SRO landlords to charge "visitor fees" -- a practice long run in order for hotel managers to get a "cut" on drug-dealing or prostitution activities in the building. After a rash of fires destroyed many SRO's in San Francisco and left nearly one thousand tenants homeless, a new program to reduce fire risk in SRO Hotels was initiated"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Room_Occupancy

 

Not Federal control I'm saying demand health certification of each sex worker, verify they are at least eighteen years old and are not working the streets just like other countries that have legal prostitution. And zone the brothels as adult businesses and ignore incall or outcall visits to a client under the law. And permits and fees could cover any costs, put money into fighting illegl prostitution and make the city and State money on top of that.

 

I think the government is capable of running any business into bankruptcy...

 

Well, since the government is such a piss poor business manager that they would likely run legal government-owned brothels into bankruptcy in no time flat, the obvious solution is to legalize brothels and allow private interests to own them and, for that matter, to legalize prostitution altogether even to the point of allowing the ladies to ply their trade independently (rather than working for evil pimps and madams).

 

Nope, we would contract it out and assign a Project Manager to oversee the Contractor. Which would result in cost overruns due to out of scope client requirements, political activities brought on by citizen agendas, and discrimination complaints brought by underserved special interest groups.

 

You mean there might be complaints by some would-be customers if the ladies refused to service those who are too old or too ugly or too impotent?