413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

on the stroll. That said, as one respondent pointed out, if one is solely relying on word of mouth, business
could easily fluctuate depending on the strength of the economy:
Sometimes business was so busy and sometimes it wasn’t it. It depends on word of mouth
and weather. Many of the guys who worked in construction, if it was raining, they didn’t
have money and didn’t pay. (H5)
Another respondent, who relied solely on referrals, felt that this allowed him to attract a higher profile
clientele:
My spot was word of mouth. Everybody who came I knew personally or the person who
referred you I knew. Knew not to refer anybody, had to be of a certain caliber. I am a
gentleman and like to deal with gentleman. No matter what you do, can still conduct
yourself accordingly. These are the people who were referred. At one point I had to trim it
down by upping the price. (H1)
Stroll
Respondents reported that every major city contained a “stroll”—a street or location where prostitution
was widespread and where pimps, sex workers, and johns could go to find one another. Some respondents
reported a preference for working on the stroll (also referred to as the track or blade) because it was
constant and guaranteed: “I am a track guy. I would only go to a city without a track if I was breezing by. A
track is guaranteed. With online, you have to hope there is a call that comes in. I am going online when I
get there, but that is not the foundation. The foundation is the track” (C9). Another respondent similarly
preferred the stroll because he believed the continuous demand made it remain more lucrative than the
Internet: “The streets are still able to make money more than the Internet. People are coming to look for
that as opposed to waiting for a phone call” (E12).
Pimps also continued to work on the stroll for reasons that were not strictly tied to demand. Despite his
perception that the Internet provided more lucrative business opportunities, one respondent worked a
city’s stroll because it garnered him respect from other pimps:
Internet is crushing [the stroll]. But the respect you get from your partners. A bitch ain’t a
real ho if she is just sitting in a hotel waiting on a trick. You’re just a call girl, you ain’t no
ho. A stomp down pimp, keep a bitch strictly on the concrete. You got real hos who really
going to do some hoing. But me, I break every bitch in with the blade. However, I don’t
really play the blade as much, since the Internet is way more lucrative. (B3)
Working the stroll could also be instrumental to maintaining the dependency of the pimp-employee
relationship:
I always worked street. I worked Internet too but not too much. I would always want the
person to feel that I needed her and she needed me. If you work the streets, they need
you, they have to call for directions. Sitting in a hotel, on the computer, they have too
much time to think about what they want to do. They can just pack up and leave. I would
be around. I would drive up and down the boulevard. On the streets, [sex workers] got to
worry about johns pulling up, undercovers, regular police, pimps jumping out and
sweating you to get you to come. (E2)
The streets introduce a host of hazards for employees. As the respondent observed above, women working
on the streets may in turn feel more of a need to have a pimp for security and companionship.
Local Newspapers, Alternative Lifestyle Classifieds, and Phonebooks
Local newspaper classifieds were also used by pimps for advertisement. In some respects, print
advertisement was comparable to online advertisement. Both forms afforded many of the same benefits,
while also exposing pimps to many of the same hazards. One bottom explained how she used a local
newspaper:
One of my pimps introduced me to [a local newspaper]. It’s like $75 (per ad), depending
on how big you want the ads. I paid like $75, no picture. I put “White Female. $80 half-
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