Alongside the obligatory lose-your-gut articles, the latest issue of Men’s Health ranks Raleigh America’s Most Political City.

MT.Net readers will be happy to know that Raleigh beat out metropolises (metropoli?) like Montgomery, Alabama (#2) and Little Rock, Arkansas (#3) for this honor. It just doesn’t get more exciting than this, folks.

I was quoted in the paper today regarding a proposed topless club on Capital Boulevard.

“We don’t want a concentration of places,” said Mark Turner, chairman of the East Citizens Advisory Council.

“It drags down the property values or the safety of the hotels, like the Milner Inn,” Turner said. “Something like this happening sets us back.”

While the quote was accurate I wish I’d had more time to collect my thoughts. A neighbor had given the reporter my work phone number and he called me when I was right in the middle of crunch time on a big project. Deadlines notwithstanding, I should have asked to call him back. I wonder if its just human nature for one to wonder if one sounds like a moron whenever quoted in the paper.

At any rate, yesterday morning I thought of a big reason I’m wary of the project: robberies. Strip clubs are cash-driven businesses. Latinos have a reputation (right or wrong) for keeping large amounts of cash on them. I fear a Latino strip club will become a robbery magnet and overburden our already-overworked officers with more robberies to solve.

I’m probably one of the top callers to Raleigh’s Graffiti Hotline, the number to call when graffiti is spotted anywhere in the city. In fact, I’m on a first-name basis with them! After walking by a clean spot Monday that 24 hours earlier had spray paint on it, I felt I had to let someone know what a great job Raleigh’s Street Maintenance division has been doing to keep the city clean.

Below is my email to the division’s director, Elwood Davis, which cc’d city officials:
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