Press
Release
New approach targets the clubs
Commercial
Appeal
May 3, 2007
The anything-goes reputation Memphis strip clubs have earned is a local
problem, and it should be solved here, this year, in a way that removes that
blemish from the city's image.
It's not a state problem that calls for a state solution.
It was disappointing to learn last week that a regulatory bill written by
the "cabaret industry," sponsored by Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, and
opposed by Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons, had been passed by a
House committee in the General Assembly.
The legislation, which would give strip clubs liquor-by-the-drink privileges
and regulate them at the state level, was, fortunately, withdrawn from
Senate consideration after a call from Gibbons to the Senate sponsor,
Germantown Republican Paul Stanley.
That put the wheels back on a proposed local ordinance Shelby County
Commissioner Mike Ritz has been working on in consultation with Gibbons, the
county attorney's office, planning and zoning officials and others.
Ritz plans to begin unveiling the outlines of the ordinance Monday at a
meeting of the land use control committee he chairs.
If it clears the County Commission, backers hope the Memphis City Council
will repeal a city strip-club ordinance that isn't being enforced because of
questions about its constitutionality. Its repeal would allow the county
ordinance to take effect within the city limits.
That could set the local strip-club industry on its ear -- more zoning
issues to deal with, annual renewals for club operating licenses, permits
for employees and permits for the dancers who pay to perform in them, annual
fees, criminal background checks, regulations prohibiting certain behavior
in the clubs, and oversight by a sexually oriented business board -- hassles
that will make the industry less attractive, especially with the potential
loss of licenses for careless operators.
The ordinance is identical to one adopted in Nashville and described in
enabling legislation passed by the General Assembly in 1998. It is believed
to be constitutionally sound.
Let's be clear here, however. Governments can't impose bans on sexually
oriented businesses. But U.S. Supreme Court rulings have supported the
authority to regulate such businesses, most clearly by establishing where
they can operate.
There is a valid public interest in controlling location because of adverse
secondary effects on public safety and property values in the immediate
neighborhood.
It's hard to imagine a neighborhood that would welcome a cluster of strip
clubs with open arms. Memphis is not Amsterdam.
But the city must deal with sexually oriented businesses in a way that
violates nobody's constitutional rights and does something about the city's
hard-core image.
The task can't be that hard.
