"...the board of commissioners take note of the notorious and self-evident conditions and per secondary effects attendant to the commercial exploitation of human sexuality, which do not vary greatly among the various communities within our country, particularly the problems of crime, blight, and deterioration which are brought about by the combination of alcohol and live nudity."
A couple years ago, The 11th Hour ran a series of stories written by Jessica Walden and Brad Evans. They looked into Macon's history with prostitution, and when they got into what the present state was, they discovered the truth about the form and function of Macon's massage parlors. Well, I started wondering what the future of prostitution was in Macon, what would happen with these massage parlors since they've only grown in number since our first story, and something weird hit me: There are no strip clubs in Macon but there's more than 20 of these massage parlors. I had to wonder why.That's what got us back into this issue after such a long time. Plus we had questions about how this impacted our image among other cities, for tourists, for ourselves, which is really relevant because Macon is at a crossroads. We could be heading towards massive improvement or towards collapse. Though signs point to the former, you have to wonder what effect these seedy little joints might have on the way people see us.
In the end, I had over a hundred pages of notes and figures, a dozen interviews, and many more questions. What I didn't have was first hand experience... so I went into one "undercover", you might say. You can read in the paper or online what happened, but now that the paper is out, what I'm wondering is what you think. What should the city and the county do?
There's a group of folks here who think we should relax the laws against strip clubs and find ways to better regulate the massage parlors so the city and county could make more money off of them. They feel like these places could be good for our future growth.
Of course, there are people who think that it is not only immoral but evil. They cite the damage to relationships and marriages, as well as the growing suspicion that women are being trafficked in from other countries as sex slaves to work in these businesses.
It isn't an easy subject, but I'm sure you have an opinion and I'd like to hear it. If you do, or as you do, or as I feel up to it, I'm going to share here some of the stuff I couldn't get into the article, which was already the longest piece we've ever published.
