A4 - Sunday, February 12, 1984

AS A PERSON who has ac-
tually wandered, sometimes
alone,. sometimes clutching
my wife’s arm, through such
notorious corners of the
world as the Zeedijk district
in Amsterdam, San_ Fran-
cisco’s’ Tenderloin, Paris’s
Pigalle, London’s Soho,
Genoa’s “Via de Prostituta,
Bangkok’s Pat Pong and
(gasp) Vancouver’s- West
End, 1 have, ahem, come to
certain conclusions about the
business of prostitution.

| think it has to be
legalized.

For some time, I’ve quietly
harbored this outrageous opi-
nion, but now, it turns out,
according to a leading public
opinion researcher,
something like two-thirds of
the population in Vancouver
have come to a similar con-
clusion. (Of men, 64 per cent
see it as a ‘“‘necessary activi-
ty,”” while 54 percent of
women aegrcc.)

In other words, if there
was a referendum on the
issue of licensing prostitutes,
it would probably pass.

At the same time, over 90
percent of us want to see
restrictions on the activities
of the tarts. That is, we want
them off the streets. Now I’m
not personally outraged if
I'm propositioned by a
whore, but then I'm a slightly
jaded and world-weary malic.
And 1 understand perfectly
that my mother would not
like to listen to the kind of
language that floats on the
ait between the pastel towers
along Davie Street.

Yet the fact is there is an
cnormous difference between
the libidinous anarchy of the
West End and the controlled
(one is almost tempted to say
dignified) pace in the cobbled
sircets of Amsterdam's
Zeedijk, where scantily-
attired fermes tounge in

Granville Street,

‘display wiridows and poten-

tial customers contemplate
the merchandise before mak-
ing up their minds.

To my mind there is ab-
solutely no question that the
situation in Amsterdam is far
healthier both from the point
of view of the risks faced by
the prostitutes themselves
(none in. Amsterdam, plenty
here) and from the point of
view of the customers, who
don’t need to worry about
diseases since regular
checkups come with the
license to whore and _ all
brothels are inspected by the
health department.

In what I am tempted to
call civilized countries in
Europe, where prostitution is
both condoned and regulated
by the state, the real monsters
in the enterprise, the pimps,
have been driven out of
business. Here, they prey
relentlessly on young women
and boys alike. And the law,
with its ostrich-in-the-sand
attitude, actually helps them
by forcing the whole opera-
tion underground.

On the few occasions when
{’ve taken a drink in a pub on
I’ve seen a
number of black-eyed, bleed-
ing-lipped whores stagger in-
doors, having failed to keep
their pimps happy.

The idea of people ‘‘selling
their bodics'’ is deemed
repugnant, but really,
athletes do it all the time. In
hockey, baseball, soccer and
football, players are proper-
tles and that's all there is to
ut

lam partial to Vancouver
architect’ Charlies Dobson's
idea that moribund Gastown
be designated a red light
district. The bottom-line
fanatics in Victoria should be
easy to convince. After all,
they) admire profitability
above all, don't they?

. 1 -dog in the spacious ruins of the’ former plant, Th uilding is being
dem lished to make, room for 2 commercial development. . — .

Tourism would benefit,
even if Ma and Pa.just came
in from Kamloops to gawk. I
can tell you that these other
districts 1 mentioned are a-
hum with entrepreneural
spinoffs, from the make-up

-

1381 Marine Drive, West Van.
| 980-5654 (H ) 926-7831 (0)

industry to pizza parlours.

At the very least, falling:

property values in the West

End would be saved. Teenage -

prostitution would be headed
off, since licensing would ob-
viously involve legal age
requirements. Policing could

be handed: over to the health

department, leaving the cops

free to chase criminals who.

actually hurt people or steal
things.

Prostitution may be a dirty
business, but it seems a ma-
jority of us agtee somebody’ s
got to do it.

REGARDLESS OF

(SUBJECT TO PNAILA

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