BaancBlog

From Sherri Kimbel:

The Committee on Public Safety, chaired by Councilmember Phil Mendelson, is holding a public oversight hearing on Strategies to Combat Prostitution, Friday, November 7th at noon. The notice is attached. Many people from the Logan Circle/Shaw community participated in the last hearing,
which was probably 2 years ago, and since prostitution continues to be an issue, it would be good to have community participation at this hearing.

Please pass this along to your community lists. I would like to ensure that anyone who wants to participate knows about this hearing. Lt. Smith, if there is anyone else on the police force who should get this, please let me know or forward it to them.

The editor, having lived here for a while, has probably heard most of the "solutions". And, to a very good degree compared to the "old days', there's a heckuva lot less prostitution for a number of reasons:

• Gentrification. No more, or very few, places to do business. At least of the non-vehicular type. No unboarded ground floor windows of vacant houses. (No more vacant houses.) No more abandoned cars i the alleys. And people who won't tolerate it.
• Court System. The editor remembers going to Stoney's for the first time, in the early 80's. He'd just moved into the neighborhood. Stoneys was then on L Street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth, on the north side of the block across from the Secret Service Uniformed Division.
  
  The top of the bar, above the mirrors, was covered by police and other LEO shoulder patches. It was a cop's bar.
  
  It was also a prostitutes bar. L Street wasn't as fancy as it is now, and in the evening it was crawling with street walkers. A couple of them came in when the editor was first there, and Sandy looks up and aaks: "The usual?"
  
  L Street then (and now) was the dividinbg line between 3D and 1D. 3D would move them to the south side one night, and 1D would move them back then next.
  
  Many of these gals (Tenth and M had the TV's) would work the circuit, from Baltimore and above down to Savanah. At least that's what the cops said. A few violations in one place, and the pimp would move them on.
  
  One of the things that Jack Evans did several years ago was to talk the Chief Judge at the DC Superior Court into having one judge handle all of the prostitution cases. So repeat offenders would see the same judge every time. That in itself made a difference. Also, some of the local girls could be sent to local progams to change their ways, which was mainly a drug problem. There apparently was some success there.
  
  At any rate, the crowds of prostitutes in the Thomas Circle and L Street area disappered. I said the "crowds" generally disappered. There's still s problem, but not of the old magnitude.
• Attitude. It changed. It used to be that it seemed as if if was hopeless to clean up the problem. Somewhere in the 90's, the tolerance, the feeling of helplessness changed. And we did get a new mayor then, too, now that I think about it!

The editor went on about the TV problem here a while back. It's totally separate.