NO ROOM FOR UNHAPPY HOOKERS

If there is a halfway house for hookers anywhere in the Dallas area, it’s recently received a dozen or so new arrivals who were forced out of the street, so to speak, by a Dallas investor.

The corner of Hall and State streets had been a hotbed of hookers for about a quarter of a century. But recently their flophouse, a by-the-hour motel located in back of Clark’s Discount Liquor, was razed by investor Tommy Pigg.

Pigg and a partner bought the property and destroyed a half dozen old buildings, including the historical State Theater, which at one time was the only movie house for blacks in Dallas. In the process, they cleared the hookers’ happy hunting grounds.

“We’re glad they’re gone,” says Vice Squad Capt. Don Millican. “But you know they haven’t disappeared completely. They’ve just moved their business elsewhere.”

Popular “strolls” now include Cedar Springs, between Throckmorton and Reagan, a strip which, ironically, is the home of four of the city’s most popular gay bars. Certain intersections along Carroll Avenue in East Dallas also attract loitering crowds of scantly dressed women.

But none of them can replace the ambience of Hall and State, where the brazen prostitutes would yank at door handles and bang on windshields to attract attention.

Pigg and his investment partner haven’t announced a plan for the property. They’re dickering with developers. But speculation in the real estate community has centered on a mid-range motel, like a Holiday Inn.