Today at RedCounty.com, I wrote about last Friday’s ruling by King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick rejecting the challenge of the Seattle Mariners to the permit issued to owners of the downtown Déjà Vu club to build a new facility within 400 feet of Safeco Field.  Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

It’s pointless to vent about the way this latest decision reflects on the social decay in Seattle, how the region’s largest city is doing its best to become less family friendly. Even taking a cheap shot at Mayor Greg “Claudius” Nickels is unlikely to have any real effect, if the desired result is to push nude dancing to areas that are not shared by non-adult entertainment. Because of higher court rulings that have equated lap-dancing to political speech by allowing these clubs to flout the desire of local communities to keep them out, it was the city council’s job to write the ordinance with more specificity. (Perhaps that should be something voters think about in August and November when ballots are cast.) With the City Council’s very sullied history of scandalous association with clubs and their owners, one would think they would err on the side of decency, even if the only concern was the political careers of individual councilpersons.

The response of councilpersons to this (if asked to offer one) will likely be the typical politicians’ dodge, to hold up the Constitution and either a) throw their hands up in the air alluding to prior higher court rulings the shredded an attempt by Seattle to ban the clubs all together or b) make patriotesque statements about protecting all forms of free expression, even if some of us don’t like the content.  Of course, Mayor Giuliani found a way to clean up New York and withstand legal challenges, and if the activities of strip clubs were truly so important as to receive full first amendment protections those same activities would be legal to perform in broad daylight.

Make sure to read the rest at RedCounty.com.

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