Perhaps the front page Sunday News story, “Sex for sale along Rt. 30 tourist strip”, is too well researched and informative.
It explains to couples romantically inclined but who do not want to be seen together that economy hotels with doors leading from the parking lot are a safer bet.
It helpfully provides a web site for the procurement of “female escorts”. (Sorry, we aren’t going to publish it.)
A former hotel manager recommends hotel owners get together and set higher prices, which happens to be a federal offense under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The article also implies that ‘hooking up’ and prostitution only takes place in cheap hotels.
These people from out of town who attend the convention center events and stay at the Lancaster Newspapers’s Marriott Hotel would never use an escort service. If anyone did, security would not permit them in the front door since the girls or guys can be distinguished by the scarlet letter burned into their foreheads.
Underage sex workers are a serious social problem. There is little if anything the hotel operators can do about this, especially if access to the rooms is direct from the parking area.
There are many reasons why people with local addresses use hotel accommodations. Refuse to sell them a room and risk a law suit.
The sex worker drives into the parking lot and, when the guest rooms doors open to the parking lot, never passes by the front desk.
It is up the police to stake out parking lots for the purpose of spotting underage sex workers being dropped off.
Forget video cameras. They may be of some utility inside the hotel but virtually none for thwarting prostitution outside. The images are murky at night; moreover, it is impossible to determine who is a registered guest and who is underage. And even so, how do you know the purpose of a visitor? It could be a daughter or grandchild or a young wife.
The Watchdog recalls walking along the Atlantic City boardwalk with a state senator at the outset of legalized gambling. The senator, a devout Catholic, was concerned about how gambling was attracting prostitution to his city. The Watchdog advised him that when he voted for gambling he tacitly was voting for prostitution, because without liquor and prostitution Atlantic City would have a hard time attracting high rollers and the casinos would fail.
The Watchdog recommended de facto ‘legalization’ provided the sex workers agreed to be registered, have periodic health exams, and abide by certain rules.
A convention center for the purpose of attracting people from outside the area is bound to generate prostitution. The same can be said for the legitimate tourist industry east of Lancaster
.
The proper goal: Protect the young and stay the heck out of everybody else’s business.
LNP has reached a new low (if that were possible)…they are now pimping for prostitution…isn’t that what providing the necessary information to “hook-up” does???? …
And, if anyone believes that this type of activity does not take place at LNP’s Marriott; they are (in the words of New Era editors) “country bumpkins”.
Why is this a front page “story”?????????
EDITOR: We are pleased that the matter is openly discussed. We do question providing the URL for the escort service. Of course its web site may have crashed from all the Lancaster County traffic from the curious and also from potential clients.
When I saw that fracas over prostitution on rt. 30 I knew that you would respond authoritatively. Good job, well written and covered all the relevant issues.
EDITOR: We trust the writer is referring to our experience as a hotelier!