Miss Shari
A brothel in Nevada, where prostitution is legal and regulated, that closed in 2014. Most New York State advocates seeking a change in the way the law treats prostitution want decriminalization, not legalization.
Haley114 asks: What rules do the proponents for legalizing prostitution have in mind?
City Limits answers: The most recent bill introduced in Albany, which did not move forward in the session that ended in June, would repeal laws that make sex work between consenting adults illegal and laws that make loitering for the purposes of prostitution illegal. It would retain prohibition of sex work involving minors, force, intimidation, coercion, and trafficking. The bill would also allow those convicted of crimes covered by the bill to vacate their convictions. The effect of these actions would be to decriminalize prostitution, but that is not the same as legalization. The difference is the regulatory framework: Decriminalization does not involve state regulation of the industry.
According to Nina Luo, Decrim NY steering committee member and Vocal-NY organizer, legalized systems, which are present in Nevada and Amsterdam among other places, empower managers over sex workers. “Brothel license are really expensive so brothel owners have much more power than workers.” she says. Advocacy organizations, such as the DecrimNY coalition, have called for laws and regulations that “protect people in the sex trades from economic exploitation as well as interpersonal violence.”
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Mlevin6688 asks: How does the MTA count bus ridership with respect to: lack of access to buses when there are detours and service changes because of street closures for marathons, bike events, charity walks, street fairs, parades and construction? Street closures and lack of access to buses occur nearly every weekend in Manhattan April – October. 2. How does the MTA count/reflect bus ridership/usage for people who do not pay fares, whether “farebeaters” or children who are free? Buses are often packed but fares paid would not reflect the actual number of people on the bus.
City Limits answers: The MTA publishes annual ridership information for buses here. It is broken out by route, here. According to their citation, days on which a bus route did not operate are tabulated as zero and this number is included in the averages for that line. Presumably any drop in ridership due to detours, service changes would be reflected in the ridership data. The MTA does not publish data on lack of access or bus detours. The MTA’s official ridership statistics do not include individuals who did not pay fares, so you are right, the ridership numbers would not reflect the fact that buses are overcrowded. The MTA says that 25 percent of riders on buses did not pay fares during the first three months of 2019.
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Ce0114 asked: How can I get racial demographics for Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island School Districts?
City Limits answers: The City Council publishes demographic data, broken out by school district on the NYC Open Data website. The city also publishes a similar dataset that is broken out by individual school. You can download the data as a spreadsheet file and sort it to compile data for Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
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