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A handbiller outside the Flamingo just north of Flamingo Road on the Strip passes out cards for an escort service in May 2010.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 | 2:19 p.m.
Commissioners look to clean up Strip
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KSNV coverage of efforts to remove solicitors and panhandlers from the Strip, April 2, 2012.
Related document
Sun archives
The Las Vegas Strip has become an obstacle course for tourists who must navigate around and through overflowing trash cans, pedestrian bottlenecks, panhandlers and handbillers. But county commissioners think recommendations by a committee largely made up of casino executives will clean it up.
The ideas include surveillance cameras, more police and ordinances regulating handbillers, adult-content newsracks and panhandlers.
“We don’t want...the Las Vegas Strip (to become) a ‘Nightmare on Las Vegas Boulevard,’” Commissioner Lawrence Weekly said. “We have to do something because the Strip is getting way out of control.”
Weekly voted with other commissioners to accept a report from the Strip Corridor Working Group, which spent six months studying the issue. Next, county staff will develop code amendments, public hearings will be set and commissioners will discuss where to find money for some of the changes.
“We all have concerns about money” coming from county taxpayers, Commissioner Tom Collins said.
Virginia Valentine, former county manager and now president of the Nevada Resort Association, said she and the commissioners get letters from people saying they will never come back to Las Vegas because of a bad experience on the Strip.
Noting that every state except one has some sort of legalized gambling, Valentine said tourists “come here to see that Las Vegas Strip. Nothing is worse than to spend a lot of money and have a horrible experience.”
County Manager Don Burnette, who served on the working group, briefly outlined some of the recommendations.
Before he began, he said the purpose of the group was not to attack the so-called “smut peddlers” or “porn slappers” on the Strip. The county has a long history of losing legal arguments over the First Amendment rights of adult-oriented businesses, and Burnette was careful to note that those businesses are not being singled out.
“People refer to them as smut peddlers, but we’re obviously talking about a much broader issue that...(includes) all kinds of handbillers on the Strip,” Burnette said, noting that club operators also hire people to hand out ads.
With photos taken in the last week, Burnette showed examples of people doing unlicensed business on the sidewalks.
They were selling water, beer, toys, sun glasses, compact discs and art. “These are just some of the examples,” Burnette said, adding that the numbers have increased significantly in the last year.
Tourists aren’t always happy, either, to have to walk around someone with three boa constrictors dangling around his neck. Capt. Todd Fasulo of the Metro Police Convention Area Command, which has 140 officers patrolling the Strip, said snakes and leashed iguanas are frequent on the Strip.
Then there’s the tumbling act in front of Bally’s, which has a large sidewalk area. While Fasulo said the act is good, it collects such a large audience that people have to walk into the road to get around the crowd.
In addition, the tumblers invite “kids to senior citizens” to participate, doing tumbling acts over the top of them. No one has been hurt, Fasulo said, but it’s a potential problem.
One night, Fasulo said, he followed an extension cord in the cracks between sidewalk sections. It led to a gas generator powering amplifiers and guitars being played by a group that had set up a makeshift stage near Harmon Avenue.
“The Strip is a very different place than it was in 1994,” Burnette said, noting that year was the last time a comprehensive pedestrian study of the Strip has been completed. In another agenda item, commissioners unanimously approved spending $581,000 for a new pedestrian study.
The Strip Corridor Working Group’s list of 32 recommendations touched on some key problems and potential solutions. Some of the recommendations:
• Establishing a “time, place and manner” code to restrict some First Amendment activities.
• Surveillance cameras and more police. Surveillance cameras could be relatively inexpensive, but more police would be costly.
• For aesthetic reasons, make all news racks for adult-oriented publications identical. The county has counted 579 of newsracks at 100 locations on the Strip. Different businesses use many different styles. Trash cans should also be placed by the racks.
• The casinos and county should empty trash cans more often.
• Increase sidewalk cleaning from three to four times a week, plus after special events.
• Pedestrian bridges, where the homeless and panhandlers often station themselves to ask for money, would be targeted with an ordinance to ban “stopping or standing,” while clarifying that bridges “are for the prompt and safe movement of pedestrians.” The ordinance would have to be approved by the County Commission.
• To address unlicensed vendors, the working group recommended adoption of an ordinance “that clearly states it is unlawful to engage in commercial activity in the public right-of-way.” It also suggests using civil penalties — tickets and fines — instead of the current method of criminal prosecution for business license violations.
• Because a lot of crime and problems happen at night, the group suggested establishing a night court to “expedite the adjudication of offenders in a prompt and consistent manner.”
Amazing how public money just pops out of the blue when ever something negative effects the Strip's bottom line. Surprise!
$500k to do a report on the strip!? There's your first problem. Who's running this, the monorail board?
dealing with these problems is complicated. One way is to have dedicated inforcement team of 3-4 people that do nothing but walk up and down the strip and arrest anyone for selling ANYTHING without a license. I've gone through the business license process and its a long exercise in patience and money, its completely unfair these guys can sell things without a license.
As for the news stands. Just remove them?! How is having a metal newspaper stand on government property have any laws??? that blows my mind.
If you are selling or performing on the strip. You need a license, plain and simple. Maybe they should talk to one of the hundred of beach cities and see how deal with vendors and such.
Vegas officials just need to get out of Vegas and learn how other cities deal with it. It's not rocket science.
To quote from the article: Weekly voted with other commissioners to accept a report from the Strip Corridor Working Group, which spent six months studying the issue.Plus... Plus... In another agenda item, commissioners unanimously approved spending $581,000 for a new pedestrian study. Odd amount plus...very costly to say the least.
does the aclu support human trafficking???
hmmm???
they defend those smut peddling handbillers...
those smut peddling handbillers are paid by escort services or pimps or whatever the hell they are...
those escort services or pimps or whatever the hell they are i would guess employ a poor girl or two who is working against her wishes...
ergo...
i ask you...
DOES THE ACLU SUPPORT HUMAN TRAFFICKING???
hey aclu clowns...
why don't you do something worthwhile...
like raise some hell with our weak pathetic ineffective cowardly district attorney steve wolfson...
hmmm...
those henderson cops should have been charged...
did you see that video tape...
i saw some crimes being committed...
and yet...
our weak pathetic cowardly district attorney steve wolfson did nothing...
NOTHING!!!
raise some hell with wolfson...
that i could respect...
that would do some good for the community...
but this...
are you kidding me...
fighting for the rights of smut peddlers...
that's just pathetic...
plain and simple...
PATHETIC!!!
does tom collins ever raise anything worthwhile???
seems like just a contrarian clown to me!!!
Half a dozen police forming a special squad that could issue instant permits. Of course Identification to fill out the form is necessary.
I read before my last trip about searching for empty bottles to fill & sell and sure enough I watched it happen from Bally's escalator. Probably filled them in the pools!
The smut peddlers need to go! Commercial speech is NOT the same as political speech!
lets get ins to check some of these people on the strip, that will stop 90% of the porn peddlers
It really is long past time to get the businesses, homeless, and others off the sidewalk who aren't there to get from point A to B. It has become a safety issue. I, too, have had to walk in the street to get around some of the bottled up crowds on the sidewalk. I've seen people push, shove, yell because they can't move.
3 officers on each side of the strip..Mandalay Bay to Wynn walking up and down giving warnings to "take a hike"...after that warning they get arrested. The problem is Las Vegas has a revolving door justice system. In and out in a few hours. Disgusting. When you have arrested a hooker 15 times...isn't it time to stick her in a prison for a few years.
So simple .. SELL the sidewalks to the casinos, then its
private property . they can kick out the bums & slappers..
I'll take that half mil check now !
@Birdiedreamin...Here's the problem with your theorem . Your initial statement, "they defend those smut peddling handbillers" isn't true. The ACLU doesn't defend anyone really. They defend the U.S. Constitution. They defend everyone's 1st Amendment Rigts, like the one's protecting you when you post your uneducated opinion.
The other glaring error in your theorem is your grand assumtion "those escort services or pimps or whatever the hell they are i would guess employ a poor girl or two who is working against her wishes..." There is nothing to believe there is a single unwilling working girl working for those services.
We all know who is supporting illegal prostitution in Las Vegas. That would be @Birdiedreamin:
FACT -- BIRDIDREAMIN PAYS TAXES
FACT -- THOSE TAXES FUND POLICE
FACT -- POLICE USE THAT FUNDING TO PAY OFFICERS
FACT -- OFFICERS LIKE Officer Peter Hervoyavich, Officer John Coggs and Michael Ray Stevens USE THAT PAY TO SEE PROSTITUTES
ERGO THE MONEY BIRDIDREAMIN PAYS IN TAXES SUPPORTS PROSTITUTION
People just love to use the 1st amendment for all sorts of baloney. The amendment was written so that the people of the country had the absolute right to criticize the govenment without fear of retribution, or to have public discourse on any subject, again without interference from officials. It was NOT written for anyone to be able to say anything at any time for any purpose. This is why we have slander, libel, harassment, abuse, and intimidation rules and laws in the communications area of our lives. Most of us forget that freedom is never absolute in a large society. We have to have some amount of decency and civility if we are to survive. Sadly, we're going in the opposite direction.
hey bghs...
sorry charlie...
ain't buying the crap you are selling...
first...
birdie is required to pay taxes...
the aclu is not required to defend flesh peddling handbillers which in all likelihood include the selling of sexual services by women against their own free will...
to wit human trafficking...
second...
if birdie stops paying taxes a cop who wants a hooker can still get one...
if the aclu stops defending flesh peddling handbillers the strip gets cleaned up...
the community improves...
and most likely a young woman or two won't have to sell sexual services against her free will...
but as always...
to each his own...
Doing so involuntarily doesn't alter the fact that you are still DOING so. And what you have completely missed the point on is that the ACLU doesn't defend "flesh peddling handbillers [sic]."
The ACLU defends your 1st Amendment Rights and since your 1st Amendment rights allow you to hand out material on the Strip.
And if the ACLU stops defending your rights, the Strip won't get any cleaner than it is today, but you won't know about it because the government will come into your house late at night and take you to some place to do forced labor, perhaps even sex work for high level politicians....so in fact the ACLU is preventing you from become a victim of human trafficking.
And the coup de grace.....not a single gal who responds to a call to on of those escort cards is working against her will.
To each his own indeed. I prefer the facts and the Constitution you ...well....don't
Par "So simple .. SELL the sidewalks to the casinos, then its private property . they can kick out the bums & slappers.. I'll take that half mil check now !"
Don't go cashing that check just yet. First if we sell the sidewalks, then they have to go to highest bidder. So Caesars buys the sidewalks in front of the MGM and doesn't allow anyone to pass. That eliminates that competition.
But of course that would never happen and here's why...
It's also reason number two your idea isn't worth a wooden nickel....
Federal courts have upheld the idea that Strip sidewalks -- EVEN THOSE BUILT ON PRIVATE LAND -- are traditional public forums and therefore open to all 1st Amendment freedoms.
It's about time that the powers to be wake up, yes it needs cleaned up. Hello!
@By DrJCA1..." The amendment was written so that the people of the country had the absolute right to criticize the govenment without fear of retribution, or to have public discourse on any subject, again without interference from officials. It was NOT written for anyone to be able to say anything at any time for any purpose."
I mean if you don't see it. If you don't see what you have writtem, then there is no helping you. Maybe if you read it aloud.
While you're at it Commissioners why don't you include downtown (Fremont St). It too could use some cleaning up......
Hopefully this will alleviate some of the problems. If someone in a Mickey Mouse costume wants to act, then they should audition for a legitimate show inside the casinos, not hang out on the sidewalk. And there doesn't need to be 20 handbillers on the same block. The cards litter the walkways. I try to avoid the area by Flamingo and Harrah's and sometimes from Bally's south because the high concentration. If I am trying to get to Tropicana, then these nuisances add 20 minutes to a walk that is supposed to only be 15-20 minutes. I only wish law enforcement was more prominent on The Strip. Rarely do I see a cop on foot and if these new regulations come about, I would hope that cops would be doing foot patrol. Until I see evidence of a change, I will be more likely to frequent the pedestrian friendly north Strip.
hey bghs...
if you think every single one of those escorts or prostitutes or whatever the hell they are that answers the calls from those cards those flesh peddling handbillers shove in your face on the strip does so of her own free will...
well skippy...
you just can't be that bright...
bottom line...
i have never called the number on one of the hundreds of cards shoved in my face by those handbillers...
but i suspect some involve the sale of sexual services...
and i firmly believe that more than a few women who sell their bodies for cash do so against their own free will...
ergo...
when the aclu fights for the rights of handbillers...
they are indirectly supporting human trafficking...
and i have no doubt whatsoever that the first amendment was not meant to support human trafficking...
period...
end of story...
As a long time resident of Las Vegas,I remember a time when this trash,assortment of freaks,casinos blasting loud music out to the street,illegal aliens handing out smut garbage in groups of 20 or 30 at a time was not permitted..The way the tourists dress and act now fits in with all the puke the strip has to offer..Good luck to them all..For me, I could not be paid enough to go anywhere near it..
Every one of these "Negative" sidewalk issues could be stopped with requiring a Business License, after all they are ALL looking to make money. Sell a certain number and charge enough to pay the police to monitor them. I know of no other city in the U.S. (and the Strip is not unique in being the Only location that attracts a lot of tourists) that has the same problem. It looks like the problem is more with our Politicians and their Competence.
@birdie..."if you think every single one of those escorts or prostitutes or whatever the hell they are that answers the calls from those cards ...does so of her own free will..." Yes, I do, because those girls come up to the guy's rooms and to do that they pass by dozens of security guards and a whole host of other people they could turn to for help.
But I need to get to the gem of the day.
"and i have no doubt whatsoever that the first amendment was not meant to support human trafficking...
period...
end of story..."
Really? You clearly have no sense of History. The First Amendment was written mostly by James Madison, and he intended it to apply to him as well as everyone else in the newly formed America.
Now Madison, like other Virginia statesmen at the time was a slaveholder. So I have no doubt in my mind the Madison intended the Amendment to protect him and well as his interests, such as his plantation known as Montpelier, with its more than 100 slaves.
So Birdie, get real, the entire Constitution was intended to support and protect, among other things, a massive network of human trafficking.
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
But the ACLU isn't defending the handbillers, they defend your first Amendment Rights. Just like the ones which allow you to voice your ignorance about US History. It just so happens that your rights are the same as the slappers, so unless you want to give up your right to every speak in public again, you should just be grateful and thank them.
I applaud Mr. Weekly, thank you for your efforts to make the Las Vegas Strip a better place to spend our hard earned money :)
I was down on the Strip on December, just walking between Excalibur and M&M World with my kids. Last time I will be doing that. I don't tend to visit the strip a lot, but going forward I'll drive from one location to another. It's become really bad.
Las Vegas Boulevard is a community. And like any community anywhere, they ALL need to step forward and act like a community.
In other words, something is happening in front of their casino and they don't like it? Take care of it. They have done this is in the past, laws be damned.
Let them do their thing. Casinos and businesses need to step forward. They have security that can without shoving this off on someone else.
You ask me, these stupid County Commissioners are all stepping forward and acting like they are the true saviors of mankind along the Strip, acting and posturing tough, supposedly reacting to some kind of outcry that isn't there, and proposing the enactment of laws that make absolutely no sense. Because it will end up in court as 1st Amendment fights that will go on and on. As a reminder, this same type of outrage was done on Fremont Street, laws enacted, they were taken to court and expended oodles of money, and now it's back to the way it was on Fremont Street, abandoned as a waste of taxpayer money perpetually tied up in court.
Knock off the polite police bit, County Commissioners, because all it is is stumping for votes in the next election. This is revealed for stupidity and it is going to adversely effect you in the next elections. I know for a fact I'm voting all you bums out of power. Start over again with calm, rational minds that concentrate on the important stuff, and not easy election winning junk.
Quit trying to make stupid laws that will only over burden Metro PD enforcing really, really dumb stuff that has no chance of getting convictions in court.
I still say the tourists down there will be fine. There is already a heavy police presence on the Strip, and THANK GOD they do their job protecting tourists from personal/property crimes. Not stupid stuff the County Commissioners want them to do.
As an aside, I'm laughing at some of the commenters on this LV Sun article that seem to draw an inference that because a "porn slapper" (such as the one pictured) is of Latino descent, then it is AUTOMATICALLY assumed he/she is an illegal immigrant. And there is absolutely no proof nor indication that is true at all...only a vague stereotypical assumption thrown out there to fire up people.
Following "newnvres" comments regarding the business license, this would help as well. I used to live in the Washington, D.C. area and saw many vendors on the Washington Mall selling everything including t-shirts. Then they did a crackdown of illegal business and the vendors were gone, opening up their walkways for freer traffic. It would be nice if all the people standing around were gone and people could just walk. Meanwhile, I will continue walking on the west side of LV Boulevard to get up and down The Strip.
hey bghs...
let me get this straight partner...
since the first amendment was written in part to protect slavery...
we should now be required apply it for the protection of human trafficking???
come on pal...
you can spin it anyway you want it...
but bottom line...
if the aclu fights restrictions on handbillers under a first amendment argument...
they are indirectly fighting for the rights of some escort services or pimps or whatever the hell they are to continue to force some women to sell their bodies for sex against their own free will...
to wit...
the aclu intends to fight for human trafficking...
period...
end of story...
all done bghs...
you can have the last word...
but i am dead on right...
i know it...
you know it...
everybody knows it...
but...
you can dig yourself in deeper if you so choose...
you can have the last word...
good day to you...
I have to be honest. It is way out of hand. I agree with the county, clean it up. I dont feel safe anymore with all the freaks trying to earn a buck!
Are these people nuts? Spending more than 1/2 a million on another "study?" What do we pay those jackasses for? To funnel funds to outside companies for more "studies" which then get shoved in a drawer somewhere and forgotten until the next "study?" It's pretty obvious to me that, with the influx of visitors to the Strip continually rising, this is affecting tourism in no way. And if there is too much "trash" being accumulated on the Strip, then it's the fault of an increased number of outsiders coming here. Perhaps we should put a cap on the number of visitors allowed into LV by making them purchase permits which will allow them to visit here. Let's build a fence around LV, put toll gates at every exit to the Strip from I-15 and post the National Guard to check for the permits. No permit; no entry! (For those of you who don't get it; I jest, of course, or, maybe not.)
I used to love walking up and down the strip. Not anymore. All the sidewalk performers, handbillers are impeding pedestrian traffic flow and creating a safety hazard. That alone should be enough to get them out of there.
This is Capitalism. The Free Market. Strip looks like many of our markets which are in serious need of regulating. Lesson here is the FM doesn't provide the value, the rules do. The FM is not self regulating, quite the opposite. The reason our country is great is not the FM, it is our Legal structures. Remember this the next time you hear somebody mouthing off about how the Government is killing their "business".
A simple solution would be to require any and all venders to have business licenses. Those without would be fined with multiple offenses resulting in arrest.
Regardless of what anyone might think, the life blood of Las Vegas is tourism and any threat to that should be dealt with in the most aggressive manner possible.
@Birdie..."since the first amendment was written in part to protect slavery...we should now be required apply it for the protection of human trafficking??"
Nope. And I never said it did. I just showed how incredibly ignorant it was of you to write, and I quote...
"i have no doubt whatsoever that the first amendment was not meant to support human trafficking"
What I have said, and what you have provided nothing to contradict, is that the girls who come to hotel rooms when guys call the numbers on the cards are not part of any human trafficking network, for the simple reason their "pimps" can't control them in that environment.
And that the ACLU doesn't defend the hand billers, they defend all of our rights to free speech. So if you believe that supporting free speech, is in someway promoting human trafficking, then you should take responsibility. Because to exercise your right to free speech is the most fundamental way to support the right to free speech.
So, do you support the right free speech, even though supporting it helps promote this imaginary human trafficking problem, or don't you?
If you don't, that's fine, just stop exercising yours. But if you continue to exercise that right you, know that is the same as supporting that right and everything else you think that entails. Whether you want to believe it or not.
Because in this area you are no more knowledgeable than you are about American History. You just have been told to hate the ACLU and you really don't know why? Because as you showed when you wrote about the drafters of the Constitution, when it comes to this topic you lack the basic foundation of knowledge. You just really don't know what you talking about.
""i know it...
you know it...
everybody knows it..."
hey bghs...
if you think just because a working girl is not in the physical presence of a pimp she is not under his control...
wow wee...
you are one dim bulb...
well then again...
that is what you are saying...
so...
if the shoe fits...
hee hee hee...
listen up clown...
i have forgotten more about the first amendment than you ever knew...
and i have no doubt whatsoever that the primary focus of the first amendment was to protect the unfettered expression of political ideas...
and NOT to indirectly enable pimps to traffick in young women against their own free will...
go away clown...
you have no idea what you are talking about...
Take on the ACLU. Enough is enough. There may be a "fine line" between illegal and legal activity but that doesn't mean we have to tolerate "legal" but offensive activity. The handing out of fliers is not violent crime but if it's advertising illegal activity or hot young girls that are held against their will OR forced into prostitution, there should be no question that we have every right to halt the advertising. And, we certainly are within constitutional bounds to outlaw advertising offensive but not illegal activity.
Bg & Birdie,
Why don't all citizens of CC who want to clean up the strip go down and take all the handbills these peddlers have in their possession? Seems to me that is the ultimate free speech?
Or, would the ACLU fight that too?
Couple of issues to point out here:
The Strip is in the County and Fremont Street is City so there are two jurisdictional entities which would be required to come up with a common solution;
SCOTUS has determined that free speech includes corporate advertising, protesters at military funerals and ladies grinding their hoochies in your face but not touching. You really think that you can prevent the handbillers, panhandlers and street performers from carrying out their business in public places?
Sell the Strip to the casino corporations and turn the whole thing private
Just send in ICE or INS or whatever they're calling it these days - that should eliminate the porn slappers right quick....
Wow this topic has been discussed to death and still they still can't figure out a way to clean things up? Really ? I wrote letters to everyone I could many years ago with my concerns about subject including the fact that this is affecting whether many people will return or not and was told basically if you don't like it don't come back. Worst offender was Lvcva
all of these idiots need to be fired and new blood with new visions need to be brought in.
You clean up the strip and maybe you will get back the thousands of tourists you have lost. Bring back a safe environment for all to enjoy not just the drunk college crowd and Vegas will once again prosper .
@Birdie
"if you think just because a working girl is not in the physical presence of a pimp she is not under his control...
wow wee..."
So not only do you believe in the fantasy of human trafficked sex workers, you also believe the pimps exert some sort of telepathic mind control.
And I agree you've have forgotten a whole lot about the 1st Amendment. Far more than I ever learned while earning my JD.
But, alas, I must concede. For you have presented me with an rock solid argument. One that sums up all the hours of research and study you have put in on the subject. For I have no retort to the super intelligent argument:
"hee hee hee..."
That is the most intelligent thing you have posted so far.
@Birdiedreamin...BGHS has got this-you need to stop. The ACLU defends the first amendment for EVERYONE including people and organizations we might find offensive. They are often disgusted by the content of the speech they are fighting to protect. I admire the ACLU for having the courage and strength to do what they do.
Human sex trafficking is the cause du jour but the problem with it is that it doesn't exist. The outrageous numbers have been proved false time and time again. I don't have The "epidemic" of sex trafficking is comparable to the "crack baby" scare in the nineties and the satanic child molesters running daycare centers in the eighties. Don't believe the first thing you read about this issue. I suggest that anyone who believes the trafficking nonsense do a quick google search about the subject. You will see.
I suggest recycling bins instead of trash cans next to the "news" racks. More trash cans, too.
as a visitor I dress well and when I walk with my wife I do not really like dodging the smut peddlers. last year these people were trying to hand
one of their sex cards to a young girl maybe 12 who obviously was recovering
from cancer ( hair loss ) . What's wrong with you people in Vegas.
shame on you.
this may be our last trip =
p.s. = we are the spenders
Others have suggested that handbillers be regulated as another form of advertising. I think the ACLU would have a much harder time against that type of argument. (By the way, I generally support the ACLU and think that what they do is vital.)
Time to clean up the trash...hope they get this approved quickly.
To my fellow bloggers;
Quit fooling around and get serious about this clean up, our very existence depends upon it. Start going after the employers. Reopen the rehab farm. Bring in the tax man to tax the street performers. Enforce blocking the sidewalk llaws, causing pedestrians to walk in the street to avoid the smut peddlers. Enact a stronger public nuisance ordinance that would be upheld in court. Do this soon or this place is really going to turn into a dump and nobody will want to come here, when they can get the same treatment at home. Just an old cop reflecting, Gordon Martines CURRE.ORG
@Roslenda (Roberta Anderson....."And, we certainly are within constitutional bounds to outlaw advertising offensive but not illegal activity."
Yes we do. The courts have allowed restrictions on some material deemed offensive. However, as they say, one man's junk is another man's treasure, the question becomes, who determines what's offensive?
Since 1973 that determination has come from applying the "Miller Test" which looks at the material though the eyes of "the average person, applying contemporary community standards."
So as long as our community standards are such as they are these cards don't violate them. Nothing on those cards are more graphic than the billboards for shows like Le Cage, Fantasy, etc. Heck the landing page of this website often has images more graphic that what those card slappers hand out.
So as long as the casinos are selling sex in their showrooms, pool parties and nightclubs, they should expect people to sell sex out front.
Solution: CAM charges upon application for vendor permit. Common Area Maintenance are routine legal means of assessing each "tenant" with a share of the cost to clean up an area. Local ordinance wound enable a serious CAM charge that must be paid with the application for the vendor permit. Street vendors would then have some interest in cleaning up their own trash and not handing their "ads" to those who turn away from them. And those who aren't licensed to distribute "ads" or to sell "water" could be ticketed with serious financial penalties.