The absurdity of locals preventing a new viable buisness yet allowing others to

O.K., first some background to the story. Was talking to a freind of mine a couple of weekends ago who use to own a bar and was thinking about opening a new bar with strippers. The old bar he had was a nice regular corner bar that would occasionally have go go dancers (usually Tuesday thru Thursday evenings) to help bring in customers on his slow evenings. Girls only danced on stage, and there were no lap or private dances allowed because he didn't want problems. Place was in town, but never really had any problems while he owned it. About a decade ago he was having some health issues and he sold the place, and the new owners (from outside the area) tried to run it more like a regular strip club and it got a bad reputation early quick, and got to be known for drugs and prostitution. After about a year they got busted, and place has been through several owners but is still a major problem, and although they no longer have dancers, is still a major drug and gang haven, and I know that the neighbors complain about it all the time. Fast forward a few years and my freind has his health issues taken care of and was thinking about opening a new place. He wants to have a nice local strip bar, inexpensive drinks, cute girls, and run a clean place. To avoid problems in town, he has a place he bought outside of town so that there won't be a neighbor issue. Here is the catch, he cannot get the local authorities to grant him the proper lisencing. He has gone through all the hoops, applied for the appropriate permits and variances, supplied his history on how he used to run the old bar. The problem is that he hasn't been denied anything, they just won't vote on it to allow him to open (every time there is a township meeting he is there and they postpone the vote till the next meeting). This is been going on now for about 2 years, but they have allowed 2 other regular bars (because they offer a "higher class" experiance), a tattoo parlor (which the owner has been in and out of jail several times for drug sales ofences) and a "therapeutic" massage parlor (which is getting quite a reputation in of itself). Rumor is is that he has been told that he needs to make a few "contributions" to certain board members. I have also heard that a major automobile dealer (who has major pull in the area, and also "unofficially" partially owns a strip club close) wants the location for a new dealership (by the way, he owns about a dozen other dealerships the area, how many car dealerships do we need anyways) where he wants to open up. He will neither confirm or deny such. Officially he says that their reasoning is is that they need to hold a public forum on the issue, but they won't vote on a date for such either.

I just find I absurd how local politics allows problems and car dealers to run rampant, but an established buisness man with a good history is denied opening an establishment that would provide jobs and pay taxes.