Regulate Nude Entertainment Before The Fact

About a month ago a business inquired about the feasibility of establishing a nude dance club in Spokane. Currently, the city of Spokane has no laws regulating the dancers, hours of operation, contact with the patrons, lewd performances, duties of the owners and managers or other important provisions that would protect public health, safety and welfare if such a business should open in Spokane.

In April, when the manager of an adult book store was convicted of hiring an underage girl to dance nude, the girl’s testimony made it clear that unhealthy activity is common in businesses that appeal to prurient interests. She described having her pay docked for failing to clean semen off the booth windows after each show. She also said she came to Spokane on the advice of a Seattle dancer who said Spokane is more lenient about checking identification.

Now, before any nude dance clubs are established, is the time to adopt an ordinance regulating and licensing them. In light of court costs, attorney fees, court time and enforcement, waiting until we have to make an established business comply with new regulations will be much more expensive.

If we have a well-written, constitutionally defensible law on the books before a business is established, our city will not have to deal with clubs that operate illegally and cost the city thousands of dollars in law enforcement and legal battles.

The party searching for a location for a nude dance club in Spokane has been denied four requests only because churches were within 750 feet of the proposed sites. It would be foolish for the city attorney’s office to wait until this business is established and the crime and destruction have begun to affect our families and ultimately the integrity of our community before beginning spending scarce money to put bandages on this cancer.

On June 3 City Attorney Jim Sloane asked the Public Health and Safety Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Roberta Greene, to appropriate the resources necessary to develop a program that will deal with sexually oriented businesses. This involves writing law, defending it in court, enforcing it with police and code enforcement personnel, and litigating infractions. He needs our support.

In just 10 days 1,550 signatures were collected on petitions as testimony to the concern people have over the threat of a nude dance club, in addition to the other seven sexually oriented businesses in the area.

Rape has increased by 22 percent in the city and county, and domestic violence and aggravated assault are up by 15 percent. Statistics show over and over that there is a correlation between pornography outlets and sexual assault.

Cincinnati used regulations and prosecution to eliminate sexually oriented businesses operating illegally. Now rapes and homicides are down 24 percent there, while they are up by the same amount in surrounding areas.

We shut down teen clubs for alcohol abuse but will we allow adult clubs to operate without regulations, creating the potential for gang and organized crime control over graft, tax evasion, prostitution. drug sales and moral decline in our city? What kind of message Is this for our younger generation?

Protection of health and safety should be at least as high a priority here as it has been in Redmond, Bellingham, Bellevue and Seattle. Those Washington cities recently passed ordinances to control these kinds of business. Even little Newport, Wash., is fighting back with zoning ordinances.

Can we make this effort at crime prevention a top priority now so a greater amount of time, money, and effort will not be necessary to effect a cure later?

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