Sex in the City: Red Light Districts and Boston’s Combat Zone

In what we hope will become a two-part episode, unPlanned delves into the world of sex in the city by looking at red light districts and Boston’s Combat Zone.

Home to X-rated movies, crime, drugs and prostitution, the Combat Zone was the creation of urban planners in Boston City Hall, who thought they could use zoning to segregate sin, even in the heart of a city. What they actually did was concentrate these activities in very tight quarters, thereby amplifying them. Still, the disappearance of these zones in urban spaces provokes wistful thoughts of “the old grunge” that used to be part and parcel of every city.

It turns out, Boston's story isn't unique among American metropolises, and Jonathan Tudan, author of Lovers, Muggers & Thieves -- his memoir of living in the Combat Zone as an 18-year-old in 1969 -- walks us through the history of sex in the city.