Dan Page's living room window overlooks a colourful children's jungle gym -- and a pink and blue neon sign advertising a more adult brand of fun.

Page's Corktown house is kitty- corner to Pink Planet Spa, a business promising "beautiful exotic attendants" and "full-body relaxing treatments."

Page is part of a group trying to change Corktown's reputation for drunks and drugs. The residential neighbourhood -- teeming with kids playing tag and walking dogs yesterday -- will never shake that image now, he said.

A red-light district would chase places such as Pink Planet away from parks, schools and community centres, Page said. Parents shouldn't have to protect their kids from the parade of men seeking sex-related services from the miniskirted working girls of such businesses, he said.

For every Corktown complainer, there are 50 residents who use Pink Planet's services, said manager Alen Amir, 28. He owns a similar business in Toronto.

Amir said he's invested $300,000 in Pink Planet and pays taxes on the licensed bath house. His operation is mindful of the community, he said, adding he's even donated money to neighbourhood causes spearheaded by firefighters and police. Amir, a married father who lives in Toronto, said he'd take no issue with a parlour setting up next to his own home.

What's next, he asked, will the city push the bars and tattoo parlours into a special district? The glut of one business type would drive down profits, he said.

But some sex-industry workers think a red-light district would protect employees and their patrons. Men will continue to seek out the services, so why not regulate it in a non-residential neighbourhood?, said Sabrina, 40, who works at Garden of Eden Spa on Kenilworth Avenue North. A divorced mother of four who used to be employed as a bookkeeper, Sabrina only wanted her working name published.

"We don't need girls on the street, getting diseases," she said. "Now it's underground. If it was above the board ... then there wouldn't be the ugliness."

Neither the patrons or the girls have ever been trouble, said Ritchie Tyo, a mechanic. But his live-and-let-live attitude would change if Garden of Eden moved near his home.

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