Ward 5 Town Hall Meeting Legislation to Relocate Displaced Adult-Themed Establishments
Share your thoughts with Ward 5 Council member Harry "Tommy" Thomas, Jr. Wednesday, When: May 16th 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Bethesda Baptist Church1808 Capitol Avenue, N.E.
The meeting is sponsored by Council member Harry Thomas, Jr., Ward 5
17 comments:
meeting at a baptist church to discuss clubs for gays and gay sex? i'm sure there'll be a sympathetic attitude there.
As a resident near the new baseball stadium and the strip clubs' old location, I say FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT. You do not want these businesses in your neighborhod (whether straight or gay clubs). I am happy to see them leave my neighborhood, but sorry to see they may be in yours. FIGHT!!
What type of problems did you have with the clubs in their old location?
Hillman. Here is what I observed:
1. Trash all over the place. Especially on weekends.
2. Fights always break out around clubs (strip clubs or not). I haven't heard of those lately.
3. Drunk, homeless, or just strange people just seemed to hang out around the clubs. Now that they are gone, I don't see those folks anymore.
4. People from all over the place (DC, MD, VA) went to the clubs and just kinda' parked however and wherever they wanted.
5. Generally, other legitimate businesses never seemed to show up around the clubs. It is like once there were a certain number of clubs, the only new thing that showed up were more clubs, liquor stores, or adult shops to sell to the patrons.
I could probably think of more. But, you get the idea. This is not good for anybody except the owners and people who like strip clubs.
To 9:36 anonymous -
Reading through your comments it appears clear to me that you are not referencing where the Gay Clubs once where on O St SE (under the new stadium diamond). Also if you claim to be a neighbor, I find that false too since the entire SE area there has been bought up and in major transformation. I did frequent O St SE when it was in business. The biggest problem was harrasment of street people who constantly hassled patrons going between their parked car to the businesses. It was rare to see any patrons hanging outside. I would blame the trash & liquor store problems on the street people hanging out simply to mug patrons. MPD did provide a stronger presence as a deterent to street people & hustlers.
I would like to see the Gay clubs re-emerge in DC. Ivy City seems like the most logical location. If I lived in Ivy City, I'd certainly would welcome the Clubs since they are good neighbors.
Granted, I never observed the exact location where the old clubs used to be, but I've been in that general area several times and it is difficult for me to beleive that the observations Anon 9:36 has made are stricly related to the clubs. I could make these exact same observations about my current neighborhood (lots and lots of trash, strange and drunk/high characters, illegal parking...especially by churchgoers, an abundance of liquor stores) and there aren't any strip clubs near by. I'd say your observations are on par with those one might make in any blighted neighborhood where the majority of residents are living in poverty.
It seems like the bottom line here is, if these businesses aren't in Ivy City, what is? That area is in a sorry state right now and I just don't see folks tripping over each other to invest and put their businesses there. I guess some people would rather see abandoned buildings and vacant lots than economy-boosting businesses in Ivy City.
Anonymous 9:36:
I went to those clubs maybe once a year for a decade. I never saw a fight there. I found the crowd to be quite docile.
Now, the losers on the street were another story. But they seemed to be mostly from the surrounding neighborhood. Most were panhandling or attempting to rob the patrons of the strip clubs.
Most of these folks seemed to come from the many public housing complexes nearby.
Blaming the clubs for the behavior of local thugs isn't really fair.
You may have a point about parking. But, really, how much did this affect you? There were no residences there. They were parking on abandoned lots and such.
I can pretty much guarantee you that church double parking is far worse.
Trash - again, I only went to the gay ones, but I never saw patrons littering.
But I did see local thugs littering. Constantly.
As for other businesses you like more opening, you have a point. But perhaps that's from the constant presence of local thugs and the stunningly high crime rate, not from the existence of strip clubs.
Apparently strip clubs in Georgetown and downtown have no problem getting more traditional businesses to open up nearby.
Let's face it. That area was a terrible part of town. It wasn't because of the strip clubs.
"I guess some people would rather see abandoned buildings and vacant lots than economy-boosting businesses in Ivy City."
wow, what a brilliant insight! i thought i had it a fantastic idea when i was thinking about supermarkets and/or retail, but WOW, you make a terrific point! forget the surrounding million dollar developments, let's put strip clubs there! gosh, i thought i had vision, but you've set me straight now!
i think we should throw in some porn shops too. after all, it is one of the most lucrative businesses out there. if we're gonna have this grand vision of strip clubs, let's throw in some porn, and adult accessory shops too! not just for the GLTB crowd, but for the horny straight folks too!
i'm sorry about the retail and supermarkets, etc.
i really wasn't thinking.
forget my idea about an arts district.
let's see some booty balance on the stage, and some donglers tittilating the crowd, that's what we all really want anyway, so hey, let's do it! do we have an online petition we can all sign?
tired of signing a petition for other lame ideas. i want skin!
lots, and lots, and lots of it!
gay, straight, for sale or not, gimme skin, babeee!!! it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than what's there, or what could be there.
thanks for setting me straight!
Is "stutterer said said" ever NOT trolling?
I agree. Strip clubs are really not a long term 'vision' for the area.
I forget who said it, but something like "simple minds, simple ideas. great minds, great ideas".
Substitute 'ideas' for 'visions' where appropriate.
Clearly, some folks have no long term plans for the area.
Makes me really want to rally for folks to get a high school diploma, or at least their GED.
Sad, sad people.
These are the folks that put a new light bulb in their home and try to deduct it from their taxes as a 'renovation'.
Right now, I seriously doubt there are developers chomping at the bit to transform this area. Otherwise, plans to add condos or retail would already be in the works. But unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. So, why not have strip clubs? Won't this bring in more money into the District as opposed to abandoned warehouses and vacant lots???
Actually, Anon, there is a huge proposal that has already been approved for the entire "triangle" south of NY Ave between Montana & Bladensburg. This site is immediately adjacent to the site that has been discussed for the strip club.
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/02/26/story3.html
The approved concept is residential and retail, with a high percentage of the residential being low-income and otherwise mixed-income units. The developer indicated that the pricepoint for the condos is enough different from the many "luxury" condos that the project would go forward despite the condo glut at the high end of the market.
Best,
Alan Kimber
ANC Commissioner, 6C05
Blogspot cut off the rest of the URL for the story--paste the first part plus this part into your address bar and you should get to the story.
2007/02/26/story3.html
If you still can't get there, I searched on Google for the following keywords:
abdo gateway dc project
The story is the first link that comes up.
Best,
Alan Kimber
ANC Commissioner, 6C05
I posted the itemized list of negative impacts of the clubs over in SE.
First, I AM a neighbor who lives just over South Cap. St in SW. There were always neighborhoods withing one or two miles of those old club locations.
Second, I am not distinguishing between the straight and gay clubs. I believe that having all those clubs in SE was a bad thing.
Third, I am simply comparing those blocks before and after the clubs moved. After the clubs left, I don't see shady people walking around, I don't see trash everywhere, and I generally feel safer being around there (even with all the construction).
Fourth, who cares if the negative impacts are 100% correlated with the clubs or a side impact? That sounds like quibbling over side matters. I am certain that those clubs bring negative elements into any neighborhood. The fact is, liquor stores and adult magazine shops popped up because of the clubs. That bought shady people who made it an uncomfortable place to be certain times of day/night.
I have a very young son. Now, I am glad that I can take him for a walk around there without having to explain what he is seeing. I really don't think Ward 5 will be happy in the long run with these kind of businesses.
Anonymous 12:06:
Of course there were less people there after the clubs moved. What exactly did you expect? That neighborhood thugs would continue to hang out there without their victims going in and out of the clubs?
Perhaps the reason you feel safer is the fact that so much public housing in that area has been torn down.
Liquor stores did not pop up because of the strip clubs. Liquor stores were there because of the surrounding residential community. After all, there are crappy liquor stores and singles sales in most DC neighborhoods, not just those with strip clubs.
Again, the problems you cite were not caused by the clubs. They were caused by neighborhood thugs targeting clubgoers as victims.
We can agree to disagree.
But, I just don't think that those clubs will benefit your neighborhood. It might have a short term benefit. But, in the big picture, I don't think it is a good thing.
I hope this comes to a beneficial conclusion for you.
i agree with anonymous.
i think it's a pretty obvious conclusion that any semi-rational person should be able to deduce.
club 55 (straight club, btw) used to be a place where guys that worked in my building would go to 'tear it up' on the weekends.
on mondays, they'd brag about:
- the chicks they laid in the parking lot
- the beer that they drank (i.e. before driving home)
- occasional fights
- racing with other 'patrons'
- ditching the cops
etc.
and this was just a handful of guys from my office.
there are LOTS of office buildings in DC, MD, and VA.
multiply that by 50 and then tell me you want to have a club by your 'home', let alone your kids.
only a mentally challenged person would roll out the red carpet for an establishment like that if they had any concern for the health and sanity of themselves, their family, or their friends.
yeah, they should be able to relocate. although they should go find the same dump that they were in, and not invade up and coming areas.
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