RE: City Council

["Stephen Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

John,
	I would recommend that the council take "a wait and see" attitude regarding
the issue of topless women who wash cars. This is the young adult equivalent
to a lemonade stand, cute and entrepreneurial. Action by the Moscow city
council over this tempest in a tea pot would make the council look overly
concerned with the unimportant. The first amendment gets tested at the
margin and this is one of those little tattered edges that hardly matters. I
would like to think that I live in a community that would not loose its cool
over this issue. Perhaps it is more a zoning issue than an indecency issue.
I understand that gawkers and traffic can affect public safety. Perhaps
enforcement of loitering laws would be more to the point in that case.
	One summer, when Vt. Senator Patrick Leahy was the district atty. in
Burlington he was asked if he would prosecute skinny dippers. He said he
used to go skinny dipping himself as a kid and did not think that it
affected the public health, welfare, or safety that much.
	Alternatively, I would suggest that the council take a pro-active stance by
encouraging a competing business that would lure away all of their
customers. I am thinking that Marshal Comstock and Peg Hammett could open a
topless care wash across the street and drive the young ladies out of
business.
Regards,
Steve Cooke
226 E. 1st St.
Moscow, ID
882-0492