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Not in My Backyard Lap

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Mayor Nickels' campaign to make local strip clubs no fun for anyone popped up on the local radar again yesterday. Turns out Georgetown residents aren't too happy with Nickels' desire to create a strip club zone that borders their neighborhood to the north.

If this zoning change is approved, any new strip clubs in the city would be built there and Georgetown residents would have to explain the sex industry to their impressionable children, and maybe put up with patrons wandering back and forth between local bars and local adult cabarets.

Seattlest is not actually a fan of Nickels' proposal -- we signed the petition to overturn his new regulations, which will be on the ballot in November. We prefer our sexual vice with dimmer lights, able to approach closer than four feet, and spread throughout the city. Why should Georgetown -- or downtown, Ballard, and Lake City -- have all the fun?

But we're also not fans of Georgetown's language -- the strip club debate is framed in terms of "saving" the neighborhood. Anti-zone activists are fond of calling it a "red-light district," which isn't really accurate (these days). No one is proposing legal bordellos in Georgetown.

Have an opinion about the new strip club zoning laws? You can tell Peter Steinbrueck all about it tomorrow night at a public hearing. Head to the second floor of City Hall at 5:30 and let the Urban Planning Committee know what you think local strip clubs should be like, just in case Nickels' proposals aren't overturned in November.

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By James in on April 11, 2006 1:00 PM

Comments [rss]

  • It seems to me that it would be a better idea to spread strip clubs throughout the city. It's not right to force one neighborhood to host a glut of strip clubs. Allow one strip club in several different neighborhoods and spread out any possible impact.

  • Durin

    Georgetown is getting treated like crap from Nickels and everything he doesn't want to see is getting shoved our way. Need a new dump? Let's stick it in Georgetown, only 3 minutes from another existing one! Need to put some rapists somewhere? Stick em in Georgetown! Boeing Field just not earning the city enough money? C'mon Georgetown! Let us put even more planes over your roofs! What are we going to do with all this mercury? I know! Let's float it down the Duwamish river towards Georgetown!

    Georgetown is now what Fremont was 15 years ago and Belltown was 10 years ago - a small, tight-knit community that is taking over and rebuilding neglected neighborhoods. Businesses are beginning to thrive, a community is building and growing stronger, and it's being turned into a great place to live and have a family.

    For all of his talk about wanting to energize Seattle and turn it into a living city, Nickels is sure crapping on his backyard. I think he'll be surprised by the "weak neighborhood activism."

  • Courtney

    Perchance "Posted By" is thinking of I Heart Rummage? The first Sunday of every month, at the Crocodile Cafe. Next up: May 7.

  • Seth

    Thanks, Will--the link is fixed now.

  • Seth

    Do you mean the Fremont Sunday Market?

  • I think the link is busted for the "dog owners hate Nickels" link.

  • Posted By

    Hey Seattlest, whats the name of the monthly (sunday?) event that has some cute name in which people sell their handmade/weird stuff? Maybe its in Ballard? Fremont? Can not recall when where or what its called.

  • Yeah, Georgetown seems to have enough area that's 1000 feet from all the places a strip club has to be far away from.

    I don't get why strip clubs can't get within 1000 feet of libraries, though. What if I'm inspired to leave the club and check out Elisabeth Eaves' Bare or Lily Burana's Strip City?

  • Kevin

    It probably isn't a surprise Georgetown got picked, it's probably has that magic combination of sufficient quantities of dilapidation and weak neighborhood activism.

    But hey, at least Georgetown has sidewalks.

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