Brothels for street hookers...

[nyx]

Check out this news story:

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_brothel20051110.html

I like that he was brave enough to state something so outrageous. It bugs me that the story proceeds on the premise that the idea is obviously not even worth investigating. There was no investigation into why he would risk political suicide to state that there should be city run brothels. I would assume, for the time being, that he had his reasons.

I found it disappointing that the objective is to get women out of prostitution. The overiding perception behind the story's premise is that all prostitution is bad and that premise is simply false. It would seem to me that painting all prostitution with the same rather broad brush is over simplifying things to the point of being completely imbecilic.

Could the idea work? Did you chicken shit other councillors even consider it or did you just scuttle away from the guy like he was the index case for the next plague? Bugs me... why not even give it a dialogue?

Just my thoughts. Comments?

 

[dexi]

To me this isn't that far removed from safe injection sites for drug addicts. A few years ago that was a shocking suggestion.

But this one's a lot more politically loaded. Any advocate of this as a potential solution had better be a woman, or group of women, to avoid the misogyny charge. Tim Louis is a sympathetic enough figure that he might get away with it, but there's no guarantee.

Who would go into a state owned brothel anyway, unless it were completely legalized? Seriously, would anyone trust that discretion would be ensured at such an establishment?

 

[ghost4]

Brothel?

I find this story to totaly ignorant of the current system in Vancouver.
There are currently several "Brothels" operating in the city under the Massage parlour label. All of the street walkers that used to habitate Davie, Seymour and Hastings streets are now "safe" inside these establishments. Keep it of the streets and let these places do what we all know they do, behind closed doors while the masses keep walking by none the wiser.

 

[richrad]

i thought city was discussing something about constructing a redlight district. building 1 brothel? that just sounds weird.

 

[Maury Beniowski]

Can you imagine for a moment what a City of Vancouver operated brothel might look like?

Who would select the girls? City Council?

What would they charge?

I hope this goes through just for the laugh...

Hey, of course they would be Unionized... And, of course, strikes would follow, tying up the whole city... I just can't wait...

What would they call it? COPE-ULATION?

 

[HaywoodJabloemy]

It's not a new idea. They had them in Sydney AUS.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/stories/s749702.htm

But I don't think people there like street prostitution any more than Canadians or any others would.
http://www.abc.net.au/nsw/news/200406/s1131679.htm

And the major difference is that brothels were decriminalized in NSW, while all brothels are criminal in Canada... or as ghost4 pointed out, they are supposed to be criminal, but are allowed and licensed by the city anyway. The fact that Mayor Campbell in the CBC article can say something as two-faced as "the goal is get women out of prostitution, not facilitate the lifestyle", without people laughing at him, shows how naive Canadians are on this subject.

 

[Webster]

Getting the governemnt MORE involved in anything is never the answer. It always leads to cost overruns, lower efficiency and, eventually, either private competition or a black market.

Yeah I agree. The government should have left Iraq alone. There are cost overruns, monstrous inefficiency, a virtual black market in no-bid contracts...

Government involvement can't be brushed off like that. It works in some circumstances and doesn't work in others. I can't say I've seen Rush Limbaugh lobbying Wal-Mart to send their employees to Iraq because private companies would do it better.

In this case a good reason to get government involved is to keep track of threats to health, point addicts towards programs they could try, etc. Maybe, though, it'd be better if brothels were faith-based.

 

[Webster]

Who would go into a state owned brothel anyway, unless it were completely legalized? Seriously, would anyone trust that discretion would be ensured at such an establishment?

I'd do it if the record-keeping wasn't farmed out to Americans...

 

[HaywoodJabloemy]

Apparently the idea was suggested by Campbell in the first place.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/van....html?id=a9a5d317-af1f-413c-9357-25f42de86359

...last year, Campbell mused that maybe it's time the city take over an abandoned building and set up a brothel for street prostitutes. So it was Larry, not Louis, who first advanced the proposal...

...it's not just hypocritical to go about happily licensing escort agencies and massage parlours while ridiculing anyone who dares to discuss a city-run brothel.

 

[necko]

Brothels

U just know if the gov't gets involved they'll fuck it up

 

[rambler6]

I think its becoming more popular around the world in general. Basically any big city you go to in Europe there is a red light district. In amsterdam there is no picture taking and you can thrown in the can for doing so. Addresses the privacy issue. There is a heavy police presense for security. I think I read on this board about a large brothel being set up in Athens for the Olympics. In north america we seem to lack behind the world ten years on a lot of issues like this.