Perpetual gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix has crafted an initiative petition to amend Oregon’s constitution to allow more strict regulation of strip clubs. He’s already created a front group called “Oregonians Protecting Neighborhoods“. No doubt petitions will be circulated in churches starting next spring with an eye toward the 2008 elections. This is a continuation of the Karl Rove strategy from 2004, where Republicans put social issues on the ballot in an effort to lure “values voters” to the polls. Once there, of course, they voted overwhelmingly for George W Bush. No doubt the Republican Party would like to see a similar outcome for their next nominee.
A fascinating name, “Oregonians Protecting Neighborhoods”. What neighborhoods are we protecting exactly? Where in Oregon has a strip club plopped itself down in the middle of a neighborhood? A school? A playground? Where?
Mannix’s website includes a laundry list of laws other states have enacted to regulate strip clubs. The include:
- Zone strip act locations away from churches, schools, and residential neighborhoods.
- Establish standards as to maintenance of the premises, restriction of loitering by minors.
- Require that all areas in which entertainment is provided be visible from the common areas.
- Deny licenses to own or operate strip act businesses to those who have been convicted of certain crimes.
If you ask any club owner in town, they’ll tell you the OLCC already does a bang-up job on all these fronts. Yet we need additional government regulation beyond those already in place? What happened to “small government”?
I would suggest the majority of clubs in town, certainly every one I’ve visited, are no different than any other bar in town and the problems the create are the same as the bar down the street. In fact, I would challenge anyone looking to regulate strip clubs in Oregon to spend a Saturday night outside any club in the area then spend a Saturday in front of a bar and tell me what the difference is. Go visit Cabaret at 5th and Burnside some Saturday night at 11, then walk down to SW 2nd Ave and tell me where you feel safer. Which location causes more problems for the “neighborhood”?
November 8th, 2007 at 10:35 am
A typical “favorable Response” ploy. Most voters would say “of course those clubs need to be regulated’” without considering that the OLCC is in that very business, and this initiative is an amendment to the State Constitution.
We can hope that Oregon voters recognize the folly of amending the constitution for specific factions, much as they did for the recent cigarette tax.
Stars, in particular, given its geographical location to City Hall and Rob Drake’s personal feelings, MUST self police itself and its patrons. I like their zero tolerance policy. I never worry that I will be get caught in a melee there or that something will happen to my truck in the lot.