City Council Faces Tensions Over Prostitution and Budgets
In their final session of the term, Walla Walla councilmen navigate budget disputes and the first-ever petition to remove bawdy houses as public nuisances.
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It was a busy final session for the retiring city council last night. After finalizing the election ballot count, the council set the tax levy at 14 mills, with Councilman Smith arguing for a 12-mill economy and McLean insisting on 14 mills to fund a new $4,000 steel bridge. A notable moment occurred when residents along Rose street presented a petition asking for the removal of two houses of prostitution between Second and Third streets. This was a ringing document, and the first of its kind in Walla Walla, marking a new strategy to address such businesses as public nuisances rather than vice charges. The matter was referred to the committee on police. The council also addressed city salaries and requests for police protection at Dreamland Park.
“The plan of removing bawdy houses as public nuisances is a new one here, although for years a fight has been kept up along that line in Colfax and other Palouse towns.”
This session highlights how early municipal governance functioned as a mix of mundane infrastructure planning and moral policing. The petition regarding 'bawdy houses' on Rose Street serves as an early example of using land-use and public nuisance law to exert community social control.
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