The Failed Promise of 'Clean' Streets
Critics decry the Democratic administration's failure to suppress gambling and vice, alleging that prostitution has simply migrated from 'Whitechapel' to transit corridors.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
When the Democratic party took possession of the city government two years ago, it stood pledged to abolish gambling and prostitution. A more shameless misstatement of facts is not to be imagined. Gambling has run openly and flagrantly throughout the entire period. Regarding prostitution, it is true that the homes in the district known as Whitechapel have been closed, but their former inhabitants have spread throughout the city. Houses are located as far up on Washington street as South Sixth street. Any citizen can satisfy himself of this by taking a ride on the Jackson street cable line or the Grant street electric line any evening after 9 o'clock.
“Any citizen who is inclined to doubt this can satisfy himself of its truth by taking a ride on the Jackson street cable bus or the Grant street electric line any evening after 9 o'clock.”
The transition of 'vice' from a contained red-light district to the broader city mirrors the perpetual tension in urban planning regarding where to host nightlife and how to handle street-level nuisances. It highlights a common historical critique of 'cleaning up' neighborhoods: displacement rather than elimination.
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