Unskinny Bop
Wednesday night, a San Francisco commission is all set to take up one of the pre-eminent issues facing our fair city-- private booths in strip clubs. For those who have never frequented a strip club (we, of course, find strip clubs exploitive of women and those photos that circulated around the internet of SFist at the strip club are totally false and it wasn't our idea and we didn't pay for it!!!!), private booths are places where you can go and get a "special" kind of lap dance for extra money, all depending on the amount of money. Hey, sometimes you need a little privacy. The issue is whether to allow them or not.
This is actually part of a long standing battle in the city over the private booths. Critics have called them exploitive as club owners make it so the women who work in the strip clubs have to do nudge...nudge...wink...wink..."extra things" to make enough money to get by. There was actually a police raid way back in '04 that rounded up a bunch of strippers and charged them solicitation charges but the case was eventually dropped by Kamala Harris because the last thing Harris would want to do is actually go to trial on anything. On top of that are ever growing conflicts over pay, unionization, taxation and all sorts of other things that illustrates SF's famed conflict between it's "anything goes" ethos and politically correct uptightedness. It's also seen as of importance because thanks to the Mitchell Brothers, SF can also be declared "The Home of the Lap Dance." And wouldn't you love to see that on SF tourist promotional brochures?
The issue actually came ahead once in the late 90's when dancers pressed then-DA Terrence Hallihan to do something about the private booths because of safety and prostitution concerns. It was dropped, however, at the urging of Willie Brown who had political connections to several club owners and like that's not a surprise (did you know Willie once declared a "Marilyn Chambers Day!" in 1999? God love San Francisco). Gavin, of course, is way too much of a momma's boy to even be caught near a strip club.
We are awaiting some sort of official word from the SFPartyParty as nothing says no fun partying like an end to private booths at strip clubs, but they once again seem to be quiet. As are strip club customers who, as far as we know, have not yet rallied to defend their right to $100 hand jobs.