It's All About the Parking

For years neighbors have been complaining about the swinger parties at a house near the intersection of Cedar Ridge Drive and Interstate 20 in Duncanville, Texas, a Dallas suburb. City officials didn't like the parties either, but they were powerless to do anything about them. "Although the city has regulations pertaining to sexually oriented businesses," The Dallas Morning News reports, "it has not been able to document business activities at the home." So this week the Duncanville City Council passed an ordinance banning "sex clubs" in residences. The ordinance defines sex club as "any premises, person or organization that is presented, advertised, held out or styled as, or which provides notification to the public that it is a swinger's club; an adult encounter group or center; a sexual encounter group or center; party house or home; wife, spouse or partner-swapping club; or that it provides permission, an opportunity or an invitation to engage in or to view sexual activity, stimulation or gratification, whether for consideration or not."

Although the ordinance is all about sex, city officials insist that it isn't:

"We are not addressing what activities are going on," [Councilmember Johnette Jameson] said. "We're addressing the traffic. We have to be good neighbors to each other."

Mayor David Green agreed that nearby residents have been bothered by the influx of cars coming to the home.

"People can't find parking," he said. "It's really detracting from the neighborhood."

If parking is the issue, shouldn't the ordinance apply to any regular activity that attracts a lot of people? What about cookouts, book clubs, and Tupperware parties? I guess the assumption is that only sex can attract the sort of crowds that create parking problems.

[Thanks to lunchstealer for the tip.]