SPRINGFIELD, OR — One of the great things about adult entertainment in Oregon is that the state forbids forcing businesses to locate in virtual adult ghettoes. While this makes it both safer and more convenient for customers and employees, it also means that residential neighborhoods and more mainstream businesses can’t hide from the reality of the adult economy. It also means that some business owners pick locations custom designed for controversy: Jack Dugger’s decision to open Shakers Bar and Grill a mere 125 feet from the Academy of arts and Academics High School, for instance.While zoning has never been an effective way to control adult businesses in the state, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) has long been a force to be reckoned with.
According to the Associated Press, the OLCC has been unanimously requested by the Springfield, OR city council to reject a liquor license application by Dugger for his latest strip club; Shakers Bar and Grill.
The Register-Guard reports that it only took 10 minutes for the council to decide to vote 5-0 against recommending the license – although respondents on both sides of the issue took up more than an hour.
Both city officials and opponents to the proposed exotic dance club indicated that the proximity to the high school and the existence of other bars in the area worried them. According to the city, both Club 420 and a previous business owned by Dugger earned unusually high numbers of police calls – with the area around Club 420 supposedly drawing more prostitution, drug, and assault complains during recent years.
Dugger, on the other hand, disputes the claims. During the packed council meeting, the business owner chose to keep his words brief, stating that a decision had already been made in what he and supporters call a “witch hung” fueled by “inaccurate” information.
“I’d like to thank [Springfield police chief] Jerry Smith for smearing my name. You dug up bones,” Dugger said to the assembled, referring to a 1969 felony forgery charges for which he has since received a full pardon. “I have to thank all of [those in attendance] for judging me,” he continued. “They haven’t even met me!”
As far as Dugger is concerned, his Club 420 is being unfairly blamed for crime that rightfully belongs to the neighborhood within which it operates.
Nonetheless, authorities apparently hold the club responsible for 13,615 calls for assistance within 500 feet of the club during the past five years – including 561 calls made from within the business itself.
As Dugger points out, there is another strip club within that 500 foot area and, until last year, there was another mainstream bar, as well. Club 420 discourages loitering outside of its doors and refuses entry to those who do linger. In Dugger’s opinion, the police are looking for an excuse other than their own inability to control transient traffic in the area.
Due to claims of drug use and possible prostitution within Club 420, Dugger has been working closely with police and the OLCC. After he installed surveillance cameras facing the sidewalk, police calls dropped by 17-percent.
Springfield City Council President Christine Lundberg, apparently unfamiliar with the fact that both draped and nude figures are used during life drawing classes, frets that Dugger will “put young girls in the same vicinity with men who are going to watch nude women. As a parent, that’s not what we’re working at.”
If the OLCC chooses to deny Dugger a license for Shakers, he says he’ll just turn it into an 18-and-up juice bar.
