TUALATIN, Oregon -- After learning that Oregon's stringent First Amendment protection makes it likely that Tualatin's second nude dancing club will open soon, residents formed a committee that might exercise its own free-speech rights and picket the club.
"We'll definitely look at picketing and other options, including, perhaps, buying out the lease," said Tualatin City Council member Monique Beikman.
She organized a steering committee of concerned residents after a community meeting last week, when a couple of hundred frustrated residents learned there's little the city or state can do to deny Stars Cabaret-Bridgeport the business and liquor licenses it needs to open. The opening is tentatively scheduled for mid-November.
An opinion from Beery Elsner & Hammond LLP, a Portland law firm hired by the city, minced no words: "Crafting ordinances that regulate adult businesses may not be impossible, but it is certainly hard to do. Many Oregon cities have tried and failed."
The opinion went on to suggest that the city's requirement of a conditional-use permit for adult businesses was unconstitutional and probably unenforceable.
"It was a very valuable and necessary meeting," said Beikman, who attended with Mayor Lou Ogden and the rest of the council. "None of us wants this in our community, and there was a lot of frustration that we as city officials couldn't do more to regulate this kind of business, and rightfully so. But the really valuable thing that happened was that we said, 'OK, let's move this passion and frustration a step further and channel it into a citizens' movement to do something about this.' "
Beikman invited people to stay after the meeting and sign up for a committee to coordinate and plan further action. More than 30 people joined the group, which will have its first meeting tonight. Later meetings will probably be open to the public, but this preliminary meeting is not.
Owners of the Stars Cabaret chain plan to open a new club at 17939 S.W. McEwan Rd., where Out of the Blues, a live blues and jazz club, will continue to operate until Stars receives its liquor and business licenses. The 13-year-old company has clubs in Beaverton, Salem and Bend. If approved, Stars will be Tualatin's second nude-dancing club; Jiggles has operated one exit south off I-5 since 1984 under several different owners.
Dolores Cranley, who lives with her family in the River Grove neighborhood near the club, brought the issue to the city's attention after a friend saw the liquor-license application notice posted at Out of the Blues. Cranley got in touch with City Manager Sherilyn Lombos, who referred her to Beikman.
"I thought the meeting was a good first step," Cranley said. "The attendance was great, and I saw so many neighbors from the River Grove area."
Cranley said it was apparent to her that the Stars Cabaret people were little concerned with operating a nude dancing club near a neighborhood and didn't intend to back down.
"I'm concerned about the public safety aspect," she said, "and I know that we'll be investigating the past performance of their other clubs, the level of service calls and history of overserving."
Stars co-owner Randy Kaiser said his company was not invited to last week's meeting, although the proposed club's manager did attend and spoke briefly. Kaiser said he welcomes a dialogue with residents concerned about his club.
"We've found that it's sometimes fruitful to make a good-neighbor plan," he said. "We always conduct ourselves as good neighbors, but we're not averse to putting something in writing."
He added that any such plan would not include changing the nature of his business.
Don Miller owns Miller's Homestead Restaurant next door. In the 1970s, he built the building where Stars wants to open and operated a Chalet pancake restaurant there until opening the Homestead 23 years ago. At the meeting, he offered his parking lot to people who want to photograph club customers after the Stars manager said they couldn't do so on the club's property.
"I don't know if that'll make a difference, and I don't know if picketing will work," he said. "But I know we have the same landlord, and I know he likes money, so maybe we can get a thousand people to pay $10 a month and buy out the lease. Maybe we can open a community center there, though I don't know how you'd make sure everybody pays each month."
Because of new dinner spots in the area, Miller now opens only for breakfast and lunch, so he says the club won't have much effect on his family-oriented business, although he's considering building a 6-foot-high fence between the parking lots.
"And we have a reader board that you have to drive past to get to the club," he said, "and I might use that to make my feelings known. I was thinking of something like 'Come see our girls -- they're fully clothed."
