Poorest of suburbs welcomes "palace" 4 exotic dancers...

This is nice.

FINALLY some1 WELCOLMING a strip club in their community.

That's why I just had 2 post this story, courtesy of The Daily Southtown, a newspaper near Chi-Town (that's Chicago, Illinois 4 the ignorant).





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Poorest of suburbs welcomes 'palace' for exotic dancers
December 18, 2006
By Guy Tridgell Staff writer

The marble bricks were the first indication the new business in Ford Heights was going to be different. The sleek, tan-and-white blocks, stacked across two stories, form a Roman-style edifice featuring muted columns along the sides. An expansive copper dome crowns the entrance. Punctuating the building at Illinois 394 and U.S. 30 are four smaller cupolas on each corner. The glitzy development, unlike anything for miles around, will open next month as a strip club. Not just any old strip club, but the finest gentlemen's establishment in the Chicago area, village officials said. "It is a palace," Ford Heights Mayor Saul Beck said. "This is the way it is supposed to be. It won't be a truckers' paradise. It is going to be a clean operation." The investors, Beck said, are sinking more than $1 million into a building the size of a warehouse.

The business will bring valuable property taxes to a village with struggling schools, the mayor said. An admission tax will help Ford Heights pay for its municipal services, which are on the cusp of being cut. But its neighbors are curious about who is behind the operation. Beck said he could not recall the name of the developers who won the village's permission to build. "You never know who owns anything anymore," he said. Because of the building's location next to an air traffic transmitter, approval was needed from the Federal Aviation Administration. The attorney who handled the FAA application could not be reached for comment.

Lynwood Police Chief David Palmer, worried his officers might be called to the strip club in an emergency, said he had no luck getting any information. "We really can't find out too much about it," Palmer said. "There is a lot of money being poured into that place. I want to see who we are dealing with." Lawyers for Orland Park businessman John Einoder, who runs the Lincoln Ltd. landfill next to the construction site, insisted their client has nothing to do with the building. Dan Mahan, owner of the Asian Automotive garage next door, said the structure draws attention. "It is going to be beautiful. They have been working on the outside of it forever," Mahan said. "A lot of people keep asking me what is going to be the name." With nearly half its population unemployed, Ford Heights is known as one of the country's poorest communities.

The village was awarded $6.4 million in federal grants five years ago to tap into Lake Michigan water to spur economic development. The mayor said he has no qualms putting down the welcome mat for what he called the country's No. 1 industry. "We have got no jobs," Beck said. "We have got no industry giving out any jobs." He said the strip club will be no different than anything in Las Vegas. Beck added that most people who attend strip clubs are OK with the businesses -- as long as they are not in their town.

"A lot of people say they don't go to casinos," the mayor said. "You see ministers coming out of casinos saying, 'I'm just checking on my members.' "

Guy Tridgell may be reached at gtridgell@dailysouthtown.comor (708) 633-5970.

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Hell yeah!!


It's about fuckin' time we get some good press...