Cities use local laws to curb strip clubs
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
In case you didn't know it.
ABC NEWS -- A growing number of cities and counties are using zoning, licensing regulations and other techniques to discourage strip clubs without running afoul of the businesses' First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that cities and states can ban nude dancing and regulate adult-oriented businesses, but can't prohibit them from operating. Federal courts generally protect such businesses unless communities can prove "harmful secondary effects" — increased crime, blight or diminished property values.
"This is a pressing issue all across the country," says David Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, a free-speech forum. "City officials are struggling with ways to regulate and limit and even try to prohibit adult entertainment."
Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a strip-club trade association, says legislative efforts to restrict the nation's 3,000 clubs are increasing, especially in rural areas. "We aren't opposed to regulations," she says. "We're opposed to oppressive legislation … designed to put these places out of business."
In January, Jasper County, Mo., commissioners reacted to plans for a nude juice bar by voting to ban total nudity, require employee background checks and HIV tests and keep clubs 2,000 feet from churches, schools and homes.
The rules are meant to be so restrictive that such clubs decide to locate elsewhere, Presiding County Commissioner John Bartosh said. "We can't stop them from opening, but we can make tough restrictions so they can't make any money."
Last week, the building's owner scrapped plans for nude strippers and decided to open a bar and adult video store. Bartosh says he "definitely" believes the new limits forced the change. Lawyer Bill Fleischaker, who represents the owner, says the business will "comply with the ordinance."
Eric Damian Kelly, an urban planning professor at Indiana's Ball State University who advises communities on ways to limit adult businesses, says they often locate in small towns and rural areas with no applicable zoning or other rules.
Elsewhere:
•A federal appeals court last month upheld Kenton County, Ky., rules requiring dancers to stay at least 5 feet from patrons but asked a judge to consider the legality of license fees of $3,000 for clubs and $155 for performers. The ordinance requires that stages be at least 3 feet high and limits conversation with the dancers.
"If these businesses go away, that's fine," County Attorney Garry Edmondson says.
•A Shelby County, Tenn., ordinance that took effect Jan. 1 bans alcohol in strip clubs and requires background checks and licenses for employees. Because a city ordinance allowing alcohol in Memphis clubs had been negated in court, the county rules could take effect there. Club owners are challenging the constitutionality of the rules in court, and the Memphis City Council is considering an ordinance that would permit alcohol sales.
"I don't think the law we adopted will get rid of them, and we never said it would. But if it becomes less attractive to do business here … maybe there will be fewer of these clubs," County Commissioner Mike Ritz says.
•In January, the Bourbonnais, Ill., village board voted to allow strip clubs only in areas zoned for industrial use, prohibit them from having liquor licenses and keep them 1,000 feet from churches and schools. Mayor Robert Latham says his "personal wish" is to keep them out of town or put them where they "do the least amount of damage."
Jeffrey Douglas, a lawyer and board chairman of the Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment trade group, says efforts to restrict such businesses often are driven by lawyers who promise communities they can help write limits that will stand up in court. The bottom line, he says: "Cities may not place such restrictions on the placement or operation of the business that makes it, in essence, a ban."
ABC NEWS -- A growing number of cities and counties are using zoning, licensing regulations and other techniques to discourage strip clubs without running afoul of the businesses' First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that cities and states can ban nude dancing and regulate adult-oriented businesses, but can't prohibit them from operating. Federal courts generally protect such businesses unless communities can prove "harmful secondary effects" — increased crime, blight or diminished property values.
"This is a pressing issue all across the country," says David Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, a free-speech forum. "City officials are struggling with ways to regulate and limit and even try to prohibit adult entertainment."
Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a strip-club trade association, says legislative efforts to restrict the nation's 3,000 clubs are increasing, especially in rural areas. "We aren't opposed to regulations," she says. "We're opposed to oppressive legislation … designed to put these places out of business."
In January, Jasper County, Mo., commissioners reacted to plans for a nude juice bar by voting to ban total nudity, require employee background checks and HIV tests and keep clubs 2,000 feet from churches, schools and homes.
The rules are meant to be so restrictive that such clubs decide to locate elsewhere, Presiding County Commissioner John Bartosh said. "We can't stop them from opening, but we can make tough restrictions so they can't make any money."
Last week, the building's owner scrapped plans for nude strippers and decided to open a bar and adult video store. Bartosh says he "definitely" believes the new limits forced the change. Lawyer Bill Fleischaker, who represents the owner, says the business will "comply with the ordinance."
Eric Damian Kelly, an urban planning professor at Indiana's Ball State University who advises communities on ways to limit adult businesses, says they often locate in small towns and rural areas with no applicable zoning or other rules.
Elsewhere:
•A federal appeals court last month upheld Kenton County, Ky., rules requiring dancers to stay at least 5 feet from patrons but asked a judge to consider the legality of license fees of $3,000 for clubs and $155 for performers. The ordinance requires that stages be at least 3 feet high and limits conversation with the dancers.
"If these businesses go away, that's fine," County Attorney Garry Edmondson says.
•A Shelby County, Tenn., ordinance that took effect Jan. 1 bans alcohol in strip clubs and requires background checks and licenses for employees. Because a city ordinance allowing alcohol in Memphis clubs had been negated in court, the county rules could take effect there. Club owners are challenging the constitutionality of the rules in court, and the Memphis City Council is considering an ordinance that would permit alcohol sales.
"I don't think the law we adopted will get rid of them, and we never said it would. But if it becomes less attractive to do business here … maybe there will be fewer of these clubs," County Commissioner Mike Ritz says.
•In January, the Bourbonnais, Ill., village board voted to allow strip clubs only in areas zoned for industrial use, prohibit them from having liquor licenses and keep them 1,000 feet from churches and schools. Mayor Robert Latham says his "personal wish" is to keep them out of town or put them where they "do the least amount of damage."
Jeffrey Douglas, a lawyer and board chairman of the Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment trade group, says efforts to restrict such businesses often are driven by lawyers who promise communities they can help write limits that will stand up in court. The bottom line, he says: "Cities may not place such restrictions on the placement or operation of the business that makes it, in essence, a ban."
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18 comments
I knew about most of the restrictions that are discussed for Kenton County, KY but this is the first I have heard about limiting conversations with the dancers. I know most, if not all, of the Kenton County clubs have already closed. I know The Pad, Viva La Foxx, Venus, Liberty and a few others have closed since I started clubbing, not sure if Concepts is still open or not. They spent more than a decade slowly ruining the clubs in Covington.
The problem is there is an unholy alliance of two constituencies that usually hate each other. You have the woke crowd who think women are being objectified and like to yak about power dynamics and all that crap. Then you have the religious nuts who hate sex. Put them together and you have a lot of trouble.
Not that legality would make it a perfect panacea; but I think it would be a vast-improvement (e.g. FKKs; club Hong Kong; etc).
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/stor…
Yeah no, ridiculous rules where minor contact ends up becoming just as big of a prostitution charge as full on boinking, has done a lot to encourage full service sex work for the past 14 years. Well that, plus also some macroeconomic fuckery that I won’t get into 👍
The number of clubs are down, however, from 3000 or whatever it is. So I can’t say the move to get clubs show down has been ineffective. It’s just that the ones that survived are in more violation of the law than ever. I forget what sinclair’s article counted as the number?
https://app.tuscl.net/article/57617
That said, I'm not sure that it will do a lot to save strip clubs let alone see more get opened if decriminalized sex work becomes a real thing.
I think that strip clubs are seen as outdated by many, and not in a way that's "retro cool". And then there's the whole "NIMBY" thing that won't change even if sex work is legal.
I don't think guys buying sexy fun time is ever going to go away, but it may stop being a brick-and-mortor business at some point in the future.
It's also great that almost everywhere else in the world is not as uptight as the US when it comes to sex. So, all you need to know is where to go, how to book a flight and hotel, maybe how to get a visa, and have a passport.
Yeah, the future of legalizing sex work is going to be an interesting one. It’s nuts to me when even the likes of Teen Vogue advocates for sex worker rights. On one hand, as a sex worker that is going to bias me a lot in favor of legitimizing any of my life choices. On the other, it’s kinda disturbing to be recruiting (and possibly encouraging?) legal minors to join the argument and possible grooming?? I kinda suspect that if the legalizing happens, then there will be huge battles with regard to all that, pushed forward especially from older sex workers who might have felt they were exploited too much as newbies in the industry.
Look at a state like Oregon. All but legalized hard drug use, but not prostitution.
Maybe give your husband a BJ one of these days and he won't be going to a nudie bar