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If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em

By C.S. Wiggins

The City of Warren (a suburb of Detroit) has bought an adult bookstore:

The city of Warren has been known to purchase private businesses to aid long-term development goals. But city officials broke new ground with their recent purchase of an adult bookstore.

The rare move has given the city ownership of Book World, the last remaining adult bookstore in Warren. The goal is to eventually redevelop it into something more desirable for the adjacent neighborhood on Van Dyke just east of Eight Mile, officials say.

"This is the first time we've bought something to purely enhance the surrounding area. We have no long-term development plan for this particular parcel," City spokesman Joe Munem said. "This was such a bad use we wanted to help get rid of it to help strengthen the neighborhood."

According to the article in The Detroit News, one area resident believes that the city's purchase of the store will "'keep the kids out of trouble,'" given that there is "'plenty of that around here.'" Another neighbor thinks it'll "keep the neighborhood kids' curiosity at bay." Whatever. The store, which I'm sure limited its customers to those at least 18 years of age, is probably not to blame for the kids' issues. I'm guessing that boredom and education -- too much and too little, respectively -- play a part. And so long as the city's solution to unwanted media is to burn books, the kids' curiosity will fester without intellectual growth.

Full post as published by Meeting the Sin Laws on November 07, 2007 (boomark / email).