So do advocates for sex workers and transgender women.

The zones open transgender woman of color up to discrimination and harassment, advocates say.

On the very day that a D.C. Council committee is debating legislation that would allow police to further crack down on prostitution affecting parts of Ward 7, a candidate for the ward’s seat on the council agreed to community service in the wake of a prostitution-related arrest late last year.

The balloon effect seems to apply to the District’s efforts to crack down on prostitution, writes WAMU reporter David Schultz in a must-read piece today. Crack down in one place, and it’ll simply appear elsewhere.

According to both the Post and City Paper, Ward 7 D.C. Council hopeful Kevin Chavous, Jr. was arrested late last week for allegedly soliciting a prostitute.

Under current D.C. law, prostitution is illegal. Simple enough, right? Well, no.