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Detroit
City
Council
faces
heat
from all
sides of
Strip
Club
ordinance
issue
DETROIT
(Tell Us
Det) -
For over
two
hours
City
Council
members discussed
controversial
proposals
during a
public
hearing that
would
change
how
strip
clubs
operate
in
Detroit.
The
Monday
afternoon
hearing
at City
Hall
drew
supporters
and foes
of the
changes.
Hundreds
of
people
filled
the 13th
floor of
the
Coleman
A. Young
Municipal
Building
auditorium
to voice
there
opinion
during
the
public
hearing.
The
overflow
had to
remain
in the
hallway
that
lead to
the room
which
holds a
capacity
of 550
persons.
Council
was
faced to
face
with
ministers,
church
goers
and
community
activist
that
want
tougher
laws
regulating
the
strip
clubs.
They are
demanding
that
dancers
wear
opaque
pasties.
Rev.
Marvin
Winans
of
Perfecting
Church,
said
residents
want
booze
prohibited.
"We are
here
today to
say that
if you
won't
change
it ,we
will,"
he
stated.
(Photo
by
Kwabena
Shabu)
Pointing
out the
hypocrisy
in the
room, a
dancer
from the
All
Stars
Strip
Club,
drew
applause
when she
said she
recognized
many of
her
patrons
in the
anti-strip
club
crowd.
Efforts
to reign
in adult
entertainment
go back
to 1982
when
zoning
and
licensing
ordinances
were
imposed
on some
95
cabarets,
as they
were
known
then.
Since
then the
numbers
of
strips
clubs
has
declined
to 42
with
only 33
actively
doing
business
according
to
Dennis
Mazurek,
assistant
counsel
for the
city's
Law
Department.
The
strip
club
debate
will be
on the
docket
of the
Detroit
City
Council
Tuesday
when a
vote is
expected
on
whether
to pass
both a
zoning
ordinance
and an
alcohol
licensing
restriction.
Council
members
are
considering
banning
the sale
of
alcohol
and
requiring
dancers
to wear
pasties
over the
nipples.
A
federal
judge in
2007
struck
down
Detroit's
regulations
on where
strip
clubs
could
open and
ordered
them
rewritten.
Some
council
members
also
support
banning
lap
dances
and VIP
rooms in
the 30
or so
clubs.
Religious
and
neighborhood
groups
say
strip
clubs
reduce
property
values
and
increase
crime.
Strip-club
owners
have
promised
a costly
legal
fight.
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