Lets talk about EAST ST. LOUIS!!!

Almost every time I drive through the Brooklyn, ESL or WP areas, I see where another house (or strip club) has burned down. Once, when I pulled up to a stop sign on the street just south of Pink Slip, a little kid - maybe ten years old - came running toward my truck to ask if I wanted to see his sister naked. Reminded me of a lemonade stand when I was a kid.

Much of St. Clair County is a sociologist's and anthropologist's playground. Looking for the strip clubs? They're right around the corner from the (Google this) Cahokia Mounds.

(The word is existence not existance). But your description is right-on. I still remember the good times I had in the Chameleon Club before the dang thing burned down. Also loved Dollies & Miss Kitty's. I prefer Dive to Upscale. ESL area excels in Dive.

The Big Deal about East St. Louis and environs (Brooklyn, Washington Park, Centreville, Sauget) is two words: MISSISSIPPI RIVER

West of Mississippi, you are in Saint Louis Missouri, an upscale with many conventions, businesses, and sports venues -- a community which has chosen to regulate strip clubs to the max. East of Mississippi you are in the state of Illinois, whose legislature, to its eternal credit, have allowed local communities to set the "decency standards" for their own towns. Obviously the towns named above have strip-club-friendly local ordinances/law_enforcement - mainly, I suspect, because they have been victims of severe economic decline over the decades.

Because of the Mississippi River, the distance between the giant St. Louis and the impoverished St. Clair County Illinois is very very short. A couple of excellent bridges facilitate. St. Louis provides the customer demand and St. Clair County provides the strip-club supply.

I can hardly wait to get back to ESL - one of my favorite places in the country. Some new clubs have opened since last I was there. There are several nice motels near the pleasure palaces.

There, the livin' is g-o-o-o-d ....

Well Mr. Smartypants Arbeeguy, you call out Kprince for a minor spelling error, and then you screw up your own grammar. Legislature is SINGULAR, so the verb is "has" not "have". So it goes: live by the sword, die by the sword.

"Legislature is SINGULAR, so the verb is 'has' not 'have'."

I'm hardly a grammarian, but I think "legislature" is a collective noun that may take either a singular or plural verb. To wit:

1. The legislature has voted to approve the new spending bill.
2. The legislature have debated the pros and cons of mandatory auto insurance.

Or, I could be wrong. :)

As an arch-grammarian, I should point out that arbeeguy's use of our language is more correct. But the info on ESL is all good. I wish I lived close enough to check it out (but not TOO close).

The only thing that I know about ESL is what I saw in the movie "Vacation"...lol...

Isn't most of what we refer to as Wast St. Louis really Washington Park? My one and only time going to clubs in ESL was in Washington Park.

Just did a quick count of the SC's listed on this site. Here's what I came up with:

Brooklyn - 4
East Saint Louis - 2
Sauget 2
Centreville 2
SUBTOTAL 10
Washington Park 9

So the non-Washington Park edges out the Washington Park count by One. However, with Miss Kitty's, Larry Flynt Hustler, and Hollywood all practically contiguous with each other, Washington Park is definitely the dominant player. What I really like about the ESL/Wash Pk/etc area is the blatancy. The WP handshake (her hand down your pants) The DATY right at the stage out in the open and nobody notices. Fingerfucking and titty sucking at the stage. Etc. etc. Very unusual area. BTW the activities I mentioned do NOT happen at the higher class clubs. But they happen in the dives. Also, every now & again, a real convivial party atmosphere will develop. Which is always fun.

Fyi: East St. Louis has been one of the most impoverished cities in the country for a long time. It was also the setting for the 1992 film "Trespass":

"Product Description
Everyone wants a piece of the action - and the treasure - as Bill Paxton (Titanic, Twister) and William Sadler take on a ruthless gang in this high-caliber thriller. In the rubble of a four-alarm blaze, Vince (Paxton) and Don (Sadler), two Arkansas firemen, discover a map leading to a fortune in stolen gold hidden in an abandoned East St. Louis tenement. What they don't know is the building is headquarters to a vicious mob, led by the notorious King James (Ice T) and Savon (Ice Cube). When the firefighters accidentally witness the mob executing some of their enemies, the trespassers become the gang's next target in this pulse-pounding thrillfest."

http://www.amazon.com/Trespass-Bill-Paxt…

There is a road in Columbus, OH called Route 161/East Dublin Granville and it has quite a few strip clubs all within a small distance from each other. It used to be an upscale part of town with a lot of restaurants but the general area has been going downhill. Here are the strip clubs all within 5-10 minutes of each other along roads on route 161 that I know about.
Lollipop's (temporarily closed), Dockside Dolls (RIP), Plush (RIP), Danny's Gold Fox (RIP), Dream Girls, Doll House, Xcalibur, and if you travel just about 10 minutes west you will encounter Columbus Gold and Vanity.

Ah yes, the wonderful Metro East area. It is like strip club heaven. The internet is a wonderful thing, because being from Los Angeles, I never would of learned about ESL (or any of the other fun places like Tampa, etc).

Anyways to Kprince, if you are interested about learning about the area, there are several websites you can go to. One that I enjoy is "Built St. Louis" this is actually run by an Architect, who chronicales the buildings of the St Louis area. Click on the East st Louis area and enjoy. Also read about ESL in Wikipedia, it gives a decent history of the area, Also read about Sauget Il. Its kind of interesting.

Regarding the movie Trespass, I have seen it its kind of fun way to spend 2 hours. However the movie was shot in Atlanta Ga. They were too scarred to actually film in ESL.

Now that I bored everyone to tears, a reminder there have been 2 guys killed in the parking lots of the club in the last 12 months and several muggings in the same lots. Be careful going their.

Bee

beeoch-
I am on Wikipedia all the time, usually doing highway articles, although I've done various sporting articles lately. Anyway, for most cities with their listing on Wikipedia, you get a picture of some distinguished building, like a courthouse, for example. Brooklyn, IL has a picture of a strip club parking lot, which may be the most unusual picture I've ever seen on there.

beeoch, hey thanks for mentioning the past history and the site, building st louis, it really is amazing!

Beeoch, I have also browsed that website.

Tom Waits has a song called 'Time', and one of the lyrics is

'Well the smart moneys on harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you're east of east Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause'


I didn't think much of the 'East of East St. Louis' part when I was younger, but now I get that it means the worst of the worst, or the most dangerous place to be.

Posh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko55T9Wo…

Multiverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bzLRI_…