I was reading an article about a hotel policy in Milwaukee aimed at keeping parties, prostitution, and other illicit activities out of a hotel. The policy is not to allow anyone who lives within 30 miles of the city to book a room. It was kind of a secret policy, apparently, and local government officials are probably going to stop it, but maybe the hotel chain that was doing this has an idea that could work for Jacksonville.
Wouldn't it be interesting to know the statistics associated with a policy like this before it gets universally condemned? Did calls to police go down? Were there fewer underage drinking parties that annoyed other guests? Did the hotels lose a lot of potential money?
I'd say that Milwaukee should ask the hotel some of these questions in order to find out if such a policy would be good for the community as a whole. And Jacksonville ought to pay attention to any answers that come from such an inquiry.
I get it that a family might have a house fire or some other problem and need a local place to stay, so there probably needs to be a way to circumvent a policy like this. However, if we are serious about cleaning up some of the hotels in the areas known for illicit activities, then there may be some merit in a ban on locals.