As San Francisco leaders scramble to install barriers on Capp Street — hoping to divert, or at least slow down an unchecked market for sex work — some community organizers are contemplating a more controversial and far-reaching approach: creating a sanctioned red-light district.
The move has support from sex-worker advocates, Mission District residents who want the now-illicit business contained in a commercial zone and Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who broadly favors the idea but is more focused on lifting criminal penalties from the sex trade altogether. And she's turned to Sacramento for assistance. Ronen is drafting a resolution that would urge state legislators to write a bill that would legalize sex work.