Temporal Renegade
22nd June 2007, 01:18 PM
Here's a quote from today's Detroit News. You'd think the city's Pastors would have better things to spend money and time on, before tackling this:
(Full article is here: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/METRO/706220392&imw=Y)
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DETROIT -- A city crackdown on strip clubs already has cost taxpayers nearly $500,000 in a lawsuit settlement with one operator -- and it could soon get even more costly.
The Detroit City Council approved the strip club payout in a suit filed by downtown's Famous Door II -- now Bouzouki's II -- after the council wouldn't let the owners transfer their topless entertainment permit to a buyer. Council members have done the same with at least one other strip bar looking to sell, prompting a lawsuit from the Zoo Bar owners in U.S. District Court challenging the city's adult entertainment ordinances. Seven other license transfers are pending.
If Detroit -- a city that has a projected deficit this year between $89 million and $150 million -- loses the Zoo Bar lawsuit, it could cost millions and overturn substantial parts of the city's adult entertainment regulations, allowing more strip clubs to open unfettered, critics say.
"I have talked to (city officials) until I was blue in the face about the potential here," said Brad Shafer, a Zoo Bar attorney, who argues the regulations are unconstitutional. "They don't care."
Powerful pastors and other community activists have lobbied the City Council to use 2003 guidelines to reject the transfer of permits, arguing that Detroit has too many strip bars and that they are crime magnets.
The city has 31 venues with topless permits that serve alcohol. That's more than a third of the statewide total.
"If you are going to change ownership, we are going to shut you down," declared Robin Barnes, a community outreach liaison for the Rev. Marvin Winans' Perfecting Church. "I think it's worth the cost. I don't mind paying you $500,000 if you aren't in my neighborhood."
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Now, I understand the need to have safer neighbourhoods; I don't fault them for that. But, to basically throw money at the club owners to 'go away'---money the city doesn't have--seems a bit of a waste. Maybe the clergy should've been this adamant when the city needed to keep firefighters and police....
(Full article is here: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/METRO/706220392&imw=Y)
*******************************************
DETROIT -- A city crackdown on strip clubs already has cost taxpayers nearly $500,000 in a lawsuit settlement with one operator -- and it could soon get even more costly.
The Detroit City Council approved the strip club payout in a suit filed by downtown's Famous Door II -- now Bouzouki's II -- after the council wouldn't let the owners transfer their topless entertainment permit to a buyer. Council members have done the same with at least one other strip bar looking to sell, prompting a lawsuit from the Zoo Bar owners in U.S. District Court challenging the city's adult entertainment ordinances. Seven other license transfers are pending.
If Detroit -- a city that has a projected deficit this year between $89 million and $150 million -- loses the Zoo Bar lawsuit, it could cost millions and overturn substantial parts of the city's adult entertainment regulations, allowing more strip clubs to open unfettered, critics say.
"I have talked to (city officials) until I was blue in the face about the potential here," said Brad Shafer, a Zoo Bar attorney, who argues the regulations are unconstitutional. "They don't care."
Powerful pastors and other community activists have lobbied the City Council to use 2003 guidelines to reject the transfer of permits, arguing that Detroit has too many strip bars and that they are crime magnets.
The city has 31 venues with topless permits that serve alcohol. That's more than a third of the statewide total.
"If you are going to change ownership, we are going to shut you down," declared Robin Barnes, a community outreach liaison for the Rev. Marvin Winans' Perfecting Church. "I think it's worth the cost. I don't mind paying you $500,000 if you aren't in my neighborhood."
*******************************************
Now, I understand the need to have safer neighbourhoods; I don't fault them for that. But, to basically throw money at the club owners to 'go away'---money the city doesn't have--seems a bit of a waste. Maybe the clergy should've been this adamant when the city needed to keep firefighters and police....