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• SuperDude

For decades Detroit strip clubs and angry community groups have fought unending battles over the location, number and conduct of adult entertainment. The effort to restrict, if not close, strip clubs has been led by Baptist clergy and neighborhood block clubs. Club owners, dancers and liquor suppliers have pushed back with arguments about the economic benefits of adult entertainment. On February 23, 2010 the Detroit City Council voted a new ordinance that bans lap dancing, physical contact between dancers and customers and VIP rooms. Neither side to the debate is happy because the clergy wanted the ordinance to require pasties, no alcohol and a reduction in exterior signage.

In its heyday, Detroit was unique among major cities in the U.S. Once a city of almost 2 million people and the 5th largest in the country, post WWII Detroit was a blue collar mecca with white collar professionals enjoying strong incomes from servicing auto workers. It was also a city that was 70% residential, one or two family dwellings, 10% higher than any other of the 5 largest U.S. cities. The sports teams prospered from solid fan loyalty, who enjoyed affordable tickets and arenas accessible by pubic transportation.

Topless came in after the demise of burlesque in the late '60s and early '70s. Always under close law enforcement scrutiny, early topless was tame. Lapdancing was illegal and often the reason for raids. Things began to loosen up with judicial decisions protecting almost any form of freedom of expression and law enforcement officials privately lobbying for a scale of priorities that put clubs near the bottom. I've heard cops say that murder, robbery, assault, rape and auto theft were more important than an exposed nipple or a half-naked woman sitting in a guy's lap.

Competition from the clubs in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, functionally a Detroit suburb, also caused the Detroit clubs to push the envelope. Windsor is all nude with a 19 year old drinking age. Escort services are legal, but the clubs are strictly no contact air dances, even in the VIP. Customers in Detroit had a variety of choices. Topless with lapdancing on the U.S. side or all nude with no contact in Canada. And everyone was making money.

The collapse of the automotive industry was first noticed over 5 years ago in the clubs. Big Three expense accounts were cut drastically. The reserved booths in clubs where auto execs, parts suppliers and bankers talked deals became a thing of the past. These guys used to throw tips like it was Monopoly money until the auto industry starting cutting back.

In response the clubs starting gouging customers to pick up the slack. Following what they thought was the new industry standard, Detroit clubs raised lap dances in from $5-10 to $20-25. As the clubs noticed a softening of the market, they responded by charging to enter the VIP, requiring dancers to push drinks at inflated prices, raising tip-out fees for dancers, mandating expensive valet parking and charging a fee for being seated in a booth. All of this was happening while the local economy was declining and the recreation dollar was getting tight. (Sports teams, golf courses and rock concerts doubled or tripled their prices.)

This brought us to the late '90s where the clubs had to allow for high mileage in order to keep the customers coming in. They wanted patrons to accept the idea of high prices for high mileage. And a lot of Detroit guys and tourists were able to go along with it. Until..

The bottom really fell out with the 2008-09 Great Recession. Clubs like Penthouse, The Coliseum, Tycoons and Cheetah's on the Strip had been through expensive remodeling only to see crowds really start to thin out. Saturday nights with 40 patrons became common. Customers came in for lunch to avoid the evening cover charges and starting parking on residential side streets to avoid the mandatory valet parking.

Bad manners became more noticable in this enviornment. Parking congestion on side residential streets. Working prostitutes catching guys coming out of clubs on their way to parked cars. Drunk customers urinating in public in the afternoon while schoolchildren were walking home. A garish sign of a seductive woman dominating the skyline. Housewives being accosted in the daytime by club patrons too drunk to control their behavior. Yes, all of this is anectdotal, but there was enough noise to get people angry.

Add to this the overwhelming political clout of Baptist clergy, drawing their strength and financial support from Black women in Detroit, many of whom are single mothers. White club owners, if they are aware of this phenomenon, have not handled the politics of it very well. The Black church is the major social, cultural and political outlet for the majority of Black women in Detroit. They are about 55% (or more) of Detroit's registered voters. Political candidates must go through the pastors to get to those voters. And pay cash to get that access and endorsement. Indeed, their support is critical to anyone who wants to get elected and stay in office. Their declination to support a candidate can kill a campaign. They blocked casino gambling for years during the adminstration of Mayor Coleman A. Young, Jr. until they got a piece of the action, i.e. a major say in the distribution of jobs and other goodies.

Many of these women believe they have moral and practical reasons to oppose strip clubs. Of course, some see stripping as immoral and no one can really expect to win that argument. On the practical level, they believe child support money is siphoned off by the clubs. "My baby's daddy is giving my money to some 'ho in a club." So, they complain to the pastor of the church. He hears the complaints and takes up the cause, reasoning that stemming the flow of money into clubs will redirect that cash back to child support. If that happens, the single mothers will have more money to put into the collection plate and may be motivated to do so out of gratitude. Also, leading the charge on this issue gives the pastor a platform to get elected to office. There has always been at least one minister on the Detroit City Council. One time, three of the nine members were clergy.

How could this have been handled differently? Are there avenues and approaches that could make it easier for clubs to operate? Some random thought and modest proposals, some of which I have already posted on the Discussion Board:

1. Tone down exterior signs. Garish pictures of seductive women offend parents of young children. Yes, club owners probably have the right to put the picture up, but taking it down might bring down the noise.

2. Provide security guards on patrol outside clubs. It might be a good idea to ask the City or the State of Michigan for a law giving private security guards legal authority to detain rowdy customers who are guilty of misconduct within a five (5) or ten (10) block radius. They could be held in a detention trailer in the parking lot until the police or the wife arrives.

3. Post signs on residential side streets, at club owners expense, warning citizens that club customers parking on residential side streets face being towed or detained by the club's security team.

4. Strict enforcement of age requirements for employees.

5. Step up charitable contributions and run the program through the churches. What would happen if the clubs donated one week's gross to Haitian relief and turned the money over to a church in a special fund.

6. Set up separate charitable foundations, not carrying the club name, that sponsors Little League or other sports for youngsters. The parents will know that a strip club's separate foundation is paying for the team and its uniforms. The name of the club doesn't have to be on everything in order to get the full political benefit of the contribution.

7. Stop looking down on Detroit as if we are a flock of dumb sheep, only here for your fleecing.

Well, I tried.