NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Strippers, club owners, priests, parents and more gave the City Planning Commission an earful today as it began what will likely be a series of lengthy meetings about the future of strip clubs in New Orleans.
The commission has completed a nearly 100-page study on strip clubs – at the request of the City Council – and recommends limiting the number of “adult live entertainment venues” to 14 in the Vieux Carre Entertainment District, essentially placing a moratorium on new strip clubs on Bourbon Street.
Dancers attended the city planning commission in droves today to speak out against the recommendations. They said proponents of the new limits on strip clubs are based on exaggerated statistics that seek to further an agenda.
“Yes, drugs and prostitution can occasionally be found, as well as in bars and while waiting for a street car,” said one dancer who spoke at the meeting. “Shutting them down won’t help these issues. Those already in dire straits will be forced into something worse.”
On both sides of the aisle, people who spoke at the meeting agreed that there are enough regulations designed to protect adult entertainment workers, but there is a problem with enforcement of the existing regulations.
Covenant House, a nonprofit that houses homeless and abused teens, has issued its own study that shows 25 percent of its residents are victims of human trafficking and/or sexual labor.
A representative for Covenant House who spoke at the meeting today said the problem is that “not all clubs are compliant, and the ones not following the law need to.”
One French Quarter strip club owner argued that drugs and prostitution are not found at his club, in part because they’re antithetical to the business model. He said if customers are buying drugs they are buying fewer drinks, and if prostitution were allowed in his club there would be no reason for customers to stay and “live the fantasy.”
“At the end of the day, most of us most of us go in, work our shift and return home to our families and loved ones,” he said.
There are 19 strip clubs in the French Quarter, 14 of which are within the Vieux Carre Entertainment District, and there are 23 strip clubs in the city.
Eventually, the commission report says there should be only seven strip clubs on Bourbon Street.
The commission’s report also recommends that the four New Orleans strip clubs that aren’t inside the French Quarter be closed, but through attrition and not forcing them to close on their own.
The planning commission will send its recommendations to the City Council. If the city council decides to enact regulations in response to the study, it will go back to the planning commission before the new rules would go back to the City Council for final adoption. There’s no timeline on when the city council could take action.
