May 16, 2007
Strip Club Jujitsu in Ivy City
The controversial plan authored by Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham to relocate a number of strip clubs displaced by the new Nationals stadium into Ivy City, a neighborhood in Ward 5, got even more interesting this week. The D.C. Council on Tuesday agreed to spend $3.6 million to reduce the "impact" of the relocated clubs, in a rare earmarking of funds for a specific neighborhood. Ivy City is bordered by Bladensburg Road, New York Avenue, West Virginia Avenue and Mount Olivet Road in Northeast. From the Examiner:
But Ward 5 Council Member Harry Thomas, who vehemently opposes the measure, said Ivy City residents deserve some level of comfort if they are to be impacted by an influx of club patrons. The businesses, Thomas said, will have a major impact on infrastructure and could “create an unsafe environment.”
Thomas asked for and received, as part of Tuesday’s fiscal 2008 budget debate, $3.6 million to improve the major corridors that surround Ivy City ...
So in exchange for having strip clubs moved into their neighborhood, businesses in the primarily industrial Ivy City are getting what amounts to a $3.6 million bribe from the Council to improve roads in the major corridors of the neighborhood. Sounds as though Council member Thomas knew he would have to live with the plan, and decided to get what he could out of it. But will the neighborhood be satisfied with the compromise? And will every other Ward that has anything seen as at all undesirable foisted on it now be able to shake down the Council for special project funding any time it wants?
Map image from Wikipedia
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Harry's right! What could be more unsafe than a bunch of drunk, horny gay men running around Ivy City. They might drink up all the vodka, gin and white wine.
as a ward 5 resident, i'm quite happy with the prospect of these clubs moving into ivy city. empty commercial buildings do little for the city's tax base, and they are just magnets for varying forms of crime. places that host any kind of vibrant use are better, in my mind, than vacant ones.
there is a lot of opposition in my ward for one reason....bigotry. there are people who are uncomfortable with the idea of an influx of a population that they are uncomfortable with. while i understand this line of thought, i am completely opposed to it.
i believe that clubs oriented toward a gay clientèle will not bring crime to the neighborhood, but will bring investment, jobs, revenue, and in the end, will signal to the wider business community that there is money to be made in ward 5.
the long-term investment in our neighborhoods is worth the $3.6 million dollar "bribe" that ivy city is getting to not complain (as much) about harboring these clubs.
How are they going to mitigate the impact of strip clubs in Ward 5? Put them underground?
These are gay clubs?? Then what is the big deal, the gays are urban pioneers look at what they did for eastern market.
regardless of how you might feel about the clubs, i think the deserve a waiver from the city so they can relocate. dc stole thier land and they should be allowed to relocate to someplace. for a gov't that is harking about voting rights, and having a voice, they did not seem to have any problems doing a land grab when it suited them. that was private land that the gov't stole, and there's nothing to say they can't do it again the next time they want to develop another area.
Most of the clubs formerly located in SE were not on land taken by eminent domain; they were on land sold to private developers. Like it or lump it, it was the result of market forces at work. (Granted, these land sales were speculative acts that directly resulted from other parcels taken by eminent domain, but that's neither here nor there.) While I think there is a place in a dense, thriving city for strip clubs (M St NW works just fine), single-story light industrial zoning is really not the best use of our scant 61 sq. mi. Build up or build out.
The strip clubs at issue, for the most part, were in buildings which were taken by eminent domain. So no, it was not the market's, but the city's actions which forced them out. Additionally, most of them were renting from the owners (they did not own the buildings in which they operated), so got nada from the city when the buildings were 'seized.'
"i believe that clubs oriented toward a gay clientèle will not bring crime to the neighborhood, but will bring investment, jobs, revenue, and in the end, will signal to the wider business community that there is money to be made in ward 5."
That's nice. I suppose that as an example of this you will point to all the good development over the past (how many?) years where they used to exist? And, to seal you argument, you will promise Ward 5 residents a huge publicly-funded sports arena?*
*I don't have a problem with the clubs, I've a problem with crappy arguments.
Just Being Real:
The strip clubs in SE were an improvement over what was around them - crack whores, neighborhood thugs, and homelessness.
The city took away these people's business, after having forced them decades earlier into the crappiest possible part of town, then providing stunningly bad police protection and zero development in the area (unless you count acres of public housing and it's accompanying Thug Life Training Academy as development).
For a blog based in DC, this post shows a shocking lack of knowledge about how politics works. Tommy has too many gay constituents (and donors) to play this game, so he might as well fix up his ward at the same time.
The fact that the city council is willing to once again shunt these clubs to one of the more (most?) undesirable sections of the city shows exactly how much they value the gay vote. Sure, vote for me, but when push comes to shove, we'll shove you to the area that complains least and is easiest to ignore/bribe.
Why didn't Jack Evans or Jim Graham suggest allowing the clubs to bid on relocating to the rathole beneath Dupont Circle that the city has let a private developer use and abuse and that now sits vacant? What would be the problem with allowing the highest bidder to locate in that space? It would generate cash for the city and put a wasted space to use. Ditto with the vacant Franklin School property.
Or, if the Council really wanted to mix things up, how about the using emminant domain to seize some of the church-owned abandoned row houses in Shaw and turn those over to the clubs? Now *that* would be some entertainment!
instead of bringing adult entertainment, why not bring somethign geared towards families? as much of a dump as it is, people really do live here! i dont want to raise my son in a place that is monopolized by nite clubs.
it amazes me how people are arguing over whether or not strip clubs should move in - no one ever argues about a chuck e cheese or something equivalent moving into the neighborhood. why? because no one gives a crap about putting positive businesses in our neighborhood! No one cares about the fact that people are raising their children here! wake up people!
if you want a strip club so bad - get one in YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD!
Chuck E. Cheese? Please. That's what you want? If you are looking for bad strip malls, please move to Alexandria. And where do people get the notion that they can just determine what other people will build by whining about it? If you want a lousy Chuck E Cheese, then build one. Can't do it? Exactly. So let the people who actually want to make an investment do so. No one is stopping you from improving your neighborhood, but since you're not doing so, don't put a wrench in the plans of the first group in 50 years that is willing to build something in that neighborhood.
who is going to our taxes after we run the clubs out of D.C.
The size of the displaced clubs that people seem most concerned about limits where they could fit.
The only place for something that big, besides an industrial zone, is in the central business district. And then there is the question of rent, though Marc Barnes seems able to afford it.