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Editorial: Pants police for New Port Richey? Drop it

 
Published Sept. 10, 2014

The New Port Richey City Council is staring at a lengthy to-do list. The city is trying to jump-start stalled private sector investment in its downtown, redevelop a historic hotel building, find new uses for a largely vacant hospital and reduce street-level crime. Pasco County's largest city has more than enough to do besides becoming the fashion police.

A citizen's complaint to Mayor Rob Marlowe about young males walking around in droopy drawers touched off a City Council conversation last week about the appropriateness of a public dress code banning exposed underwear. Fortunately, the idea sagged quicker than a pair of belt-absent jeans around a skinny teenager.

The city of Ocala already is reconsidering its recently adopted ordinance governing trouser height on city property, and New Port Richey doesn't appear eager to duplicate the government overreach that brought complaints from the NAACP, accusations of racial profiling and threatened legal action.

"Let somebody else deal with the potential constitutionality of that issue,'' Marlowe said Friday. "Do I think it's an offense against fashion? Yes. Do I think it's something we necessarily want to make criminal? I don't think so.''

Smart thinking from the guy wearing the pants in the city.