Source: YNOT.com

SEATTLE, WA -- Most people would be horrified to hear anyone protest the building of new church for fear of its negative community impact, yet many have no problem entertaining the same fears when it comes to adult businesses, including strip clubs. Three motivated Seattle strip clubs has released the results of a study they financed on the issue -- and the findings may surprise open-minded industry opponents.

According to the study, which reviewed eight years' worth of police responses to the clubs in question, concluded that "there is no evidence" that the exotic dance establishments were "disproportionately more often the source of police attention" than nearby taverns, convenience markets, or department stores.

In case that wasn't clear enough, its author's reiterated that "Crime does not tend to accompany, concentrate around, or be aggravated by these adult businesses."

Whether this information is compelling or not may be seen in the November 7th election results, since Seattle voters will have the opportunity to set aside currently laws that restrict dancers to a four-foot distance from customers, denies direct tipping, and requires clubs to install bright lighting.

Although the new laws are not yet being enforced, supporters have insisted that they were necessarily to protect the surrounding areas and cut back on presumed police calls to strip clubs. Club owners and free expression supporters have argued that the laws stem from an attempt to legally enforce a moral standard and would result in financial hardship for businesses, their employees, and dancers.

Daniel Linz, a professor of communication and law and society t Universtiy of California, Santa Barbara was responsible for the study, which was conducted at the request of Rick's in Lake City Déjà Vu near Pike Place Market, and Sands in Ballard strip clubs.

Linz found that the three non-alcohol-serving strip clubs actually had fewer police calls than surrounding bars, which serve alcohol but do not provide erotic entertainment. In fact, Fred Meyer stores had more than three times as many police incidents as Rick's. The majority of police responses that Rick's did experience were related to undercover vice inspectors checking to make sure dancers weren't touching patrons, although budget cuts have caused those visits to decline.

City officials dismiss the study, which they have not yet fully reviewed, claiming it is biased. Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis says, "It kind of reminds me of the tobacco industry hiring consultants to say tobacco was good for you."

Posted by Matt at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Source YNOT.com

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- The strip clubs in Scottsdale, AZ are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Sick and tired of harsh new regulations that they believe will ultimately run them out of business, club owners have vowed to do battle with Proposition 401, a September 12th ballot measure that would require dancers to wear more clothes and remain four feet from club patrons, effectively making lap dances impossible.

Lamar Whitmer, political consultant for Babe’s Cabaret and Skin Cabaret, which would each take a substantial hit from such a law, says the clubs tried to play nice, but now the gloves are coming off.

“We will have a full-fledged campaign,” he vows, adding that “The polling data looks very good and we feel very confident.”

Mayor Mary Manross, a strong a vocal supporter of the additional constraints is unmoved by the threatened political combat, insisting that it her intention to “stay the course and allow the city to vote on this.”

According to attorneys for the clubs, the city has made it nearly impossible for new clubs to open, something club owners thought might encourage relaxation of the already tough rules. Assistant City Manager Ed Gawf has admitted that business owners are correct that it would be “very difficult” for any new adult establishment to make Scottsdale its home.

In December the city council unanimously approved new limits on conduct within adult entertainment establishments, but the strip clubs were able to gather enough signatures to put them on hold until voters had an opportunity to weigh in. Joel Wright, a local pollster working with the clubs, says that only 30-percent of voters report having confidence in their elected officials, whereas 50-percent admit no confidence and 20-percent were neutral.

Wright believes that the club owners have a good chance of winning their fight and, in fact, that the process will not only “be bitter” but will also “further erode confidence in the city’s leadership.”

Councilman Tony Nelssen has been willing to reach some kind of consensus with the clubs but feels that their previously proposed compromise was unacceptable. The council voted as a block to reject it in spite of the testimony of First Amendment lawyers, insisting that it was too lenient.

It’s not just club owners and their legal council that think the battle will be ugly and pointless. Former council member Bill Crawford agrees that long-established businesses are having their rights violated and that the situation will not make the city or its representatives look good. “This is a train wreck,” he told the council. “You will be held accountable for this.”

Posted by Matt at 06:29 PM | Permalink

Source: YNOT.com
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - U.S. District Judge John Antoon may well have cleared the path for all-nude exotic entertainment at Daytona Beach nightclubs that serve alcohol, thanks to a recent ruling that struck down that city’s anti-nudity laws.

According to Antoon, the prohibitions against nudity in public places, including those that sell alcohol, violate both the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The decision has made Fort Lauderdale defense attorney Daniel Aaronson very happy.

“We won on every single issue,” he proclaimed after the victory, which may directly affect his client, Lollipops Gentleman’s Club. Aaronson now has the go-ahead to seek repayment of Lollipops’ legal fees, which are in excess of $100,000.

The case relied in part upon a previous ruling about whether or not adult nightclubs produce negative secondary impacts in their neighborhoods, including crime, prostitution, and illegal drug activities. When the city had proved unable to show evidence of such effects, the clubs pointed out that convenience stores and other non-adult nightclubs were a greater threat. The presiding judge had concluded that “gone are the days when a municipality may enact an ordinance ostensibly regulating secondary effects on the basis of evidence consisting of little more than the self-serving assertions of municipality officials.”

Now the question is how much can dancers in adult nightclubs remove and still be in compliance with regulatory laws. Although Constitutional issues may have been resolved, city zoning laws still must be factored into decisions – and Daytona Beach currently restricts businesses that display nudity to operating exclusively within an industrial area on the far west city limit. This has led deputy city attorney Marie Hartman, who has successfully fought challenges to the city’s nudity regulations since 1981, to conclude that “regardless of this ruling, they’re still not entitled to remain where they are.”

City officials plan to investigate a possible appeal. Among issues to be considered is a December 2004 agreement with Molly Brown’s and the Pink Pony nightclubs, wherein each agreed to drop a federal lawsuit in exchange for being allowed to have their dancers wear more minimal garments. A provision in that settlement required that all adult clubs be granted the same enforcement of city rules.

Gay Edinger, a Gainesville attorney retained by Molly Browns and Lollipops contends that Antoon’s ruling is the first in the nation where a judge has struck down city nudity laws after a full trial.

“A lot of what happens next depends on how the city reacts,” he pointed out. “My guess is the clubs will probably follow suit with whatever change Lollipops might enact.”

Lollipops has not determined yet whether it will remain topless or expand to full nude entertainment, although Ron Krenn, the owner of Molly Browns, insisted that “full nudity with alcohol is what the city can expect if they do not resolve this now.”

Posted by Matt at 11:43 AM | Permalink

Source: YNOT.com

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Scottsdale City Council members yesterday decided unanimously to hold a required referendum in September covering new restrictions regulating local strip clubs that the Council passed in December.

The City Council is also considering putting the referendum on the ballot for May, the earliest possible date that the vote could be held.

“My preference is to just get it done,” said Councilman Jim Lane. “The sooner the better. I think the public’s awareness is more heightened now as opposed to a later date.”

Others, including Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross, prefer the September date because the deadline for May ballot arguments is next week, which they say wouldn’t give the public time to consider all the information available related to the issue.

“The election should not be in May,” Manross said. “We would really have to cut corners.”

The council also voted 6-1 against negotiating a compromise with local club owners, which include adult megastar Jenna Jameson, part owner of Babe’s Cabaret. Representatives for the club owners, including First Amendment attorney Richard Hetzberg, who represents Jameson, had urged the council to forge a compromise and avoid the costly, time-consuming referendum process.

“You have nothing to lose,” said Hertzberg. “We think there is plenty of time to work out a compromise.”

“The city and every other affected party could be spared the agony, in a sense, of this kind of municipal election,” added John Weston, a Los Angeles-based attorney who is representing the clubs’ interests in the referendum.

Scottsdale officials, however, see no room for compromise, painting the issue as entirely black and white. Councilman Bob Littlefield said he would not support a compromise, or even a committee to examine the possibility of compromise, because he knows what the strip-club owners want.

“There is no ambiguity there,” Littlefield said. “This is a referendum on lap dancing.”

When the Council passed the new restrictions in December, Babe’s Cabaret and another local club, Skin’s Cabaret, began collecting signatures to force the referendum. In January, they submitted over 8,000 signed petitions demanding the referendum; a minimum of 3,384 signatures are required.

According to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, the signatures submitted by the clubs have at least 5,382 valid signatures out of the total of 8,000.

Council members claim that their new regulations were contained in the city’s original ordinance, and simply had never been enforced. A closer inspection of the original and new restrictions, however, shows that the old restrictions only applied to “nude” dancing, and not to partial-nude dancing.

The city’s new regulations address partially nude dancers, those who wear G-strings and pasties, and thereby applies to both Babe’s and Skin. In fact, in order to totally avoid violating the new regulations, dancers will have to cover almost all of their breasts, and have full coverage of their buttocks.

Club owners have protested that the new regulations would effectively put them out of business, and are a violation of the First Amendment rights of dancers, club owners, and their patrons.

Opponents of the regulations point out that Los Angeles passed similar restrictions, but once local strip clubs gathered enough signatures to force a vote, officials in L.A. overturned the revised regulations.

When told about what had transpired in Los Angeles, Littlefield said, “Maybe we’re going to have a little more spine.”

Posted by Matt at 11:38 AM | Permalink

Source: YNot.com
Citizens within both Georgia and Tennessee may soon see changes in how some strip clubs in their states are regulated.

Currently, dancers in Tennessee’s Metro clubs must not only remain three feet from patrons during dances but, like club owners, submit to a background check, and register with the city each year in order to keep working. Some, including councilman Adam Dread, think these are bad ideas that endanger privacy rights and potentially the lives of dancers, as well as interfere with their ability to work and the ability of the clubs they dance in to provide the kind of entertainment their customers prefer.

Posted by Matt at 09:23 PM | Permalink

Source: YNot.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
by Q. Boyer

SEATTLE, WA – The Seattle City Council approved one of the tightest sets of regulations for any major American city on Monday, banning lap dancing and the common form of tipping done by inserting bills into a performer’s G-string.

The council split 5-4 on the measures, which require that a minimum of a four foot separation is kept between patrons and dancers, that clubs maintain at least a parking-garage level of brightness in all areas, ban “private” rooms, and mandate that tips will be dropped by patrons into a tip jar, rather than handed directly to performers.

“For the most part, the attraction's gone,” said Gil Levy, an attorney representing Rick's adult nightclub in Seattle. “It will make the clubs less fun.”

The office of Mayor Greg Nickels, who requested the legislation, said the new restrictions were needed to prevent a proliferation of new clubs following s federal judge’s decision, which struck down the city’s 17 year-old moratorium on opening new strip clubs.

Some critics of the new rules have suggested that zoning laws would be a better way to regulate strip clubs than restrictions on the conduct inside the clubs, while others say the ordinances are an odd choice for a city that is otherwise tolerant and supportive of personal and civil liberties. “Without being prudes, we can be prudent,” said Councilman Nick Licata in defense of the restrictions.

In the late 1980’s, Seattle passed a 180 day moratorium on the opening of new strip clubs, which was designed to cap the number of clubs while city officials researched the effects of the clubs, and whether zoning regulations were needed. Year after year, the City Council extended the moratorium, and the number of strip clubs in the city dropped from 7 to 4.

Last month, US District Court Judge James Robart ruled in favor of a man who sued for the right to open a new club in Seattle, ruling that the moratorium was an unconstitutional restraint of free speech. As a result of the ruling, the city could end up paying the man millions of dollars in damages, regardless of the new restrictions and their enforcement.

Posted by Matt at 11:14 AM | Permalink