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Houston gets court victory in battle against strip clubs
By BRADLEY OLSON Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 31, 2008, 1:19PM
The city of Houston has won a significant victory in its effort to stamp out strip clubs and pornographic boutiques that have set up shop too close to neighborhoods.
A state district judge ruled in favor of the city's attempt to permanently shut down The Penthouse Club, 2618 Winrock, and ordered an owner of the establishment to pay $42,000 in attorney's fees.
The case was a major test of a new front in Houston's long-running battle to enforce its "sexually-oriented business" ordinance, which has withstood multiple challenges that finally held up under the scrutiny of the U.S. Supreme Court. The law, which requires such companies to operate at least 1,500 feet from schools, day care centers, parks and churches, has been flouted by strip clubs and pornography shops since 1997, when it was adopted by the city.
But with The Penthouse Club, the city tried a new tack: suing to shutter the business under nuisance laws.
The club had been closed since September, when a separate state district judge granted a temporary injunction filed by the city pending trial. Today's ruling, issued by outgoing State District Judge Caroline Baker, is permanent. The location will be shut down as any kind of business for the next year, and as real estate, the location can never again be used as a sexually oriented business, no matter who the owner is, the ruling states.
Phone calls to The Penthouse Club were redirected today to All Stars, a sister club across the street near the intersection of Westheimer Road and S. Voss Road. A man who answered the phone there declined to comment.
This is funny to me, because I know dozens of swinger clubs operate here, where people are
screwing in the club, and on stage, no less. But, let's target the clubs where girls take off their tops. Right.
There is only one way of avoiding the war – that is the overthrow of this society. However, as we are too weak for this task, the war is inevitable. -L. Trotsky, 1939
