Kink, Coffee, & Taxes

This morning was one of those only in Chicago moments.

I’m on my second (okay… fourth) cup of coffee, the news is on in the background helping set a more somber tone to the morning, I’ve got one earbud in working through some sample beats, and I’m casually reading the paper… when I land on an article about the City of Chicago shutting down… a “sex dungeon.”

Yes. That sentence alone required a refill.

But once the caffeine kicked in and I actually read past the headline, something about the wording caught my attention. The City isn’t just saying, “this is not allowed.” They keep emphasizing that they’re trying to determine where this type of use fits within the licensing code and how it should be categorized.

That’s interesting.

Because when municipalities start talking about “figuring out where something fits,” it’s often less about a one-off situation and more about the early stages of defining a category that didn’t previously exist, especially in mixed-use buildings where residential, commercial, and experiential uses blur together.

And when new categories get defined… codes change.

When codes change… frameworks follow.

And eventually, so do things like compliance models, valuations, and taxation structures.

All sparked by what looks like an edge case.

So now I’m sitting there, coffee in hand, wondering if this article is less about shutting one place down and more about the start of a broader conversation on how cities regulate and maybe redefine hybrid spaces going forward.

Curious if anyone else reads it that way, or if this is just what happens when you mix caffeine, policy brain, and a very unexpected headline.

I suppose this is what happens when F’nAround gets credentialed to cover EXXXOTICA… you end up reading articles you didn’t expect and analyzing municipal code over coffee.

Read the new article now: Kink & Taxes