SALEM, OR — Given recent legal decisions supporting strip club and free speech rights, the Faye Wright Neighborhood Association may well be speaking the truth when they claim they’ll resist the opening of the Presley’s Playhouse Cabaret all the way to the Supreme Court.The neighborhood association, along with some nearby businesses, are unhappy about the proposal of a club opening in their part of town, insisting that it will ruin what they perceive as the areas “family friendly” atmosphere.
According to association chair Julia Allison, “Pretty much everyone in south Salem is opposed to this, not just because of its location, but the kind of message a club like this sends to our children — and using young girls to strip and dance around naked is degrading to all women.”
Moral concerns aside, part of the resistance may well stem from the fact that Frank Boussad’s club would be the eighth club to open in the Oregon state capitol, along with 11 book stores — numbers association members believe to be too high.
Opponents further point out the number of parks and all-ages businesses in the area of the unopened club, among whose number are four city parks, a community park within two blocks, another community park about a mile from the location, two child-care centers and an assortment of residences with children within less than 500 feet of the club, and a scattering of school bus stops, including one directly in front of Presley’s Playhouse Cabaret.
Some local business property owners are concerned about how the club might affect their clients. Midge Houck is one such professional; she owns property just north of the proposed club and says that she planned to provide pre- and after school care for employees of her real estate business. Houck also claims that parking for the club, which plans to open in what was once a restaurant, is a major community concern and that neighbors have vowed to participate in cell phone patrols if the club opens, with the goal of having any rudely or illegally parked club patrons’ vehicles towed.
“He just doesn’t understand just how bad we all don’t want it — and we are going to fight and keep fighting to keep the club out of south Salem,” Houck insists, indicating what kind of neighbors Boussad can expect. “If it open, we are going to make things really tough on him.”
Houck was contacted by Boussad’s Realtor and told that a million dollar offer would convince the club owner to move his establishment to another part of town. The property cost him $545,000.
But Boussad, who owns Big Shots Bar & Broiler in north Salem, has even bigger enemies to contend with. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) held a hearing on Tuesday concerning the club’s liquor license application and city councilors T.J. Sullivan, Brent DeHart, Brad Nanke, and Rick Stuckey not only attended the meeting but have vowed to vote to deny the license.
A motion to send the matter to a public hearing on August 28th is planned for this Monday’s city council meeting.
“Everyone opposed to this type of activity in the Faye Wright neighborhood should try to be there,” Allison encourages. “We are trying to make a point that nude strip clubs do not belong in neighborhoods where children, parks, daycares, and schools are prevalent.”
In addition to these wholesome attractions, the area also has two male and one female registered, predatory sex offenders living within one mile of the club.
City councilor Sullivan is so concerned about the likelihood that his children will be assaulted by club patrons that he says he will need to go with his children to places they currently are allowed to go on their own.
Salem Police Chief Gerry Moore, however, also attended the OLCC meeting and says that clubs such as Boussad’s do an excellent job of monitoring themselves and avoiding trouble. In his opinion, they want to avoid problems and not draw attention to themselves by having police cars in their parking lots or cruising past their doors. “It’s bad, really bad, for those types of businesses,” he observes.
Sullivan is unmoved by such talk, however, and says that he and the Salem Public Works Department are completing plans to turn the area into a permit parking only section of town, with on-street violators being towed.
One resident, whose daughter had been raped at the age of eight, said that he would move if the club was allowed to open its doors.
“If this is the kind of riff-raff that is going to be coming into our neighborhood, no thanks!” Allison exclaimed. “How can proponents of this club think that mixing alcohol and aroused men is not going to lead to problems?”
