Here’s the thing about the unusually high cost of defending the anti-SOB law that the city passed in 1997, which it can finally enforce today. If I thought the law were good public policy, I’d be less likely to complain about the cost, even if in real terms it’s a very small piece of the city’s budget. It’s not that I don’t think there’s an issue with some sexually oriented businesses, in particular some of the “newsstands” and massage parlors (though some recent arrests of their owners seems to have put a sizable dent in that part of the market), it’s that I think this ordinance goes way too far. Why, exactly, is it good public policy to put Treasures or the Men’s Club out of business? Surely we’re not claiming they’ve been a drag on property values around the Galleria. I feel like there must be, and must have been, a reasonable middle ground that would have given the city more power to deal with the truly bad actors while not being a sledgehammer that crushed everything in its wake. (To be fair, the strip clubs probably didn’t do themselves any favors at the time this ordinance was being debated, if this guy is to be believed.)
Given that this lawsuit has already cost a boatlod of money, given that there’s a lot more legal wrangling to come, and given that there’s got to be an approach that will let the city do some real cleanup without throwing thousands of people out of work, I’d really love to see a settlement to put an end to all this. I’m not going to hold my breath, though.
One more thing:
Kelly DeHay, a Houston real estate agent who volunteers his time fighting graffiti in the Neartown area, said the city is reacting to the wishes of its residents.
“The city never would have spent that kind of money if they hadn’t had complaints,” DeHay said.
I would never call the newly-implemented comment feature on Chron stories representative of real public opinion, but for what it’s worth, nobody is defending the city’s expenditures in there. It’d be interesting to do a poll of people’s attitudes on this. Is upwards of a million bucks a good use of public money here? I really don’t know how that would turn out, but I’d love to see it.