SCOTTSDALE, AZ — It looked grim for the future of lap dances in Scottsdale strip clubs until yesterday, when city officials and club attorneys were able to reach a mutually acceptable compromise that will allow topless erotic dancers to ply their up-close-and-personal trade – but not allow them to touch any part of their body that’s too interesting.“This shows the government at work,” Babe’s Cabaret attorney Paul Cambria told the press, after the Scottsdale City Council voted unanimously to adopt the new ordinance that he helped draft during the past six months and which was accepted mere hours prior to the vote. “We heard from the people, the government, and the businesses,” he observed.
Nonetheless, Major Mary Manross wasn’t happy about the situation, citing concerns about the city’s livability, but claims to have voted for the more accommodating regulations in a show of “unity” with the rest of the council.
Given that the citizens themselves had not supported the council’s earlier, church elder satisfying ordinance for sexually oriented businesses during a solid September 12th referendum defeat, chances are that the council decided to show “unity” for the voters.
One councilman, Bob Littlefield contended that the lack of debate and unanimous decision shows that the city learned that voters do not want it to “overreach” with regulations instead of working directly with affected businesses.
Although a December 2005 council hearing had packed City Hall with dancers, neighbors, attorneys, religious leaders, and adult performer/club owner Jenna Jameson, yesterday’s meeting only drew one regularly attending citizen, who chided the council for wasting resources, and a council candidate eager to warn club owners to keep their noses clean.
Thanks to the compromise, dancers may also continue to be tipped directly or via money tucked into their costumes. Performers must wear pasties and a thong – and dances must be viewable from the manager’s station or via closed circuit television in order to be compliant with the law, however. The new ordinance goes into effect in 30, although clubs and bookstores have six months during which to come into compliance.
Not unexpectedly, Christian morality group the Center for Arizona Policy penned an emailed opposition statement insisting that “Scottsdale now has weak regulations that allow sex businesses to harm the community and objectify women. It is almost inevitable that the community around these clubs will start to feel the effects of relaxed regulation through an increase in crime and lowered property values.”
