[trebb]

If you take a map of the city that you live in, and block out all areas that are within 2000 feet of a school or daycare, what per cent of the city is not blocked out?

Your point? Sex offenders have a habit of offending again and again, and all too often it ends up in a real tragedy - why should they expect to find convenient housing?

[per loin]

It's not a case of finding convenient housing, but of writing coherent law. As a quick exercise, I did a few rough calculations for the city I live in. The city extends over 48 square miles. A circle of 2000 foot radius encloses an area of .45 square miles. Ignoring for the moment, overlap and closest-possible-packing difficulties, my city consists of an area equal to about 107 such circles. My city has 56 public schools, and about 60 listed day care centers, plus private schools, church schools, employer provided day cares etc. In short, the theoretical area enclosed within the "banning" circles exceeds the area of the city. In practical terms what this likely means is that there are a few small areas in my city in which sex offenders could live if we had such a law here. What happens to the property values in such areas? Does the State of Iowa reimburse property owners in such sections in Iowa cities? Or do the property owners in such areas set up a small day care center to protect their property values?