SEATTLE, WA – Although Oregon’s Supreme Court recently affirmed that erotic dance is a protected form of expression in that state, the largest city in its northern-most neighbor is doing its best to drive its own clubs out of business.Seattle, Washington has a reputation for being hip and socially liberal, yet its City Council plans to enact some of the more restrictive strip club regulation of any major American city. Worried that the overturning of a 17-year moratorium on strip clubs will result in a booming exotic dance industry, the Council plans to ban lap dances and tipping dancers at the g-string, as well as insist on grocery store quality lighting.
Historians with a focus on the city find the situation somewhat baffling, given its popularity with gay populations, its decision to make anti-marijuana enforcement a low legal priority, and its strongly anti-war populace. Yet the move from two to seven clubs between 1986 and 1988 inspired the city to delay the opening of any new clubs for 180-days while it investigated the situation. During the following two decades, the City Council consistently renewed the moratorium and saw the number of clubs drop to four.
Last month U.S. District Judge James Robart determined that the nearly two decade stonewall of growth was an unconstitutional inhibition to free speech – a decision that may cost the city millions in damages to a business owner who wants to open a club in downtown Seattle. Thus, Democratic Mayor Greg Nickels wants to discourage clubs from opening and make it easier to crack down on those in existence by installing restrictions including a four-foot rule, a no direct tipping rule, the end of private rooms, and a minimum lighting standard that would be far above that of the average nightclub. The four-foot rule would ease enforcement of a pre-existing and confusing ban on touching between customers and dancers.
Mel McDonald, the city official charged with strip club regulation, applauds the proposals, pointing out that strip clubs are often too dark to determine whether or not a topless dancer has touched – or merely come close to touching – a patron.
“With the 4-foot rule, it’s a lot less subjective,” he points out. “Our vice people can enforce it without buying a dance.”
The issue appears to be less than urgent in the mind of the average Seattle resident, however. Paul Elliott, who serves as aide to council member Richard McIver says that the Council gets “more emails about putting synthetic turf on the Lowell Heights playfield” than it does about strip clubs. Meetings regarding the issue have, however, inspired more than 100 of the 554 licensed dancers to register their complaints.
