Aspiring strip-club owner settles with city for $500,000

By Sharon Pian Chan

Seattle Times staff reporter

A year after a federal court ruled that Seattle's ban on new strip clubs violated the First Amendment, the city has paid aspiring strip-club owner Bob Davis a half-million-dollar settlement for refusing to let him open one.

Davis, who founded Giggles Comedy Club in Seattle, plans to use the money to open a new strip club in Seattle and to pay $100,000 in attorney fees.

"I decided to just settle it," Davis said. "It's not what I thought I deserved."

An expert witness for his case estimated lost income of $3 million, he said.

City Attorney Tom Carr called it "a fair settlement for all concerned."

In March 2004, Davis applied for a permit to open a "gentleman's club" on Fifth Avenue in downtown Seattle. The city denied it, citing a moratorium on new strip-club licenses that the Seattle City Council had renewed each spring since 1988.

Davis sued the city in February 2005. In September, U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled that the moratorium violated Davis' right to free speech.

The issue of damages was mediated and settled two weeks ago.

The federal-court judgment means anyone can obtain a city permit to open a strip-club in Seattle's downtown and commercial zones.

But the City Council responded last year by passing strip-club rules that have chilled business prospects for new clubs. The rules require clubs to install bright lights, ban direct tipping and keep dancers four feet away from customers. Club owners have financed a referendum to overturn the rules and collected enough signatures to put it on the November ballot.

In addition to the new rules, Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed creating a strip-club zone in an industrial area south of downtown Seattle.

Earlier this year, Davis applied for a permit to open a strip club in Bothell but was unable to get one.

"I'll be suing Bothell shortly" in federal court, Davis said.

********

Liberal city my ass

Let's go ahead and take care of all the panhandlers....THEN worry about ridding the city of strip clubs.

Let's be honest, Seattleites. How many of y'all saunter into the Deja Vu after leaving a show at the Showbox?

Ballard's getting fucking ridiculous.

Let's do what San Francisco does...

Buy them bus tickets to Pittsburgh.

*Eugene.

for the record, Seattle strip clubs ARE TERRIBLE

you west coast guys have no idea how to party

We have the strippers come to our houses instead.

my sister just testified as an expert witness in seattle in regards to this.

the case was that some dancers had violated the 4 foot rule in order to do lap dances. she testified for the dancers: that this is how the dancers make thier money, and that keeping them 4 feet away seriously decreases how much money they can make on any given night.

I've been to Seattle. I think it's funny that Bammer thinks they have a homeless problem.

Dude, and you know better from your visit?

The neighborhood I work in has a homeless problem at this point. It's not just a few homeless people here and there, they are EVERYWHERE. Every day I see them all meth-ed out, prostituting, pissing on property, and being degenerates in general. The city just moves them from one neighborhood to the next depending on which business owners bitch the loudest.

Is the homeless problem in Seattle worse then where I live in South Central?

I don't know. I haven't lived or worked in South Central. I have been there though, it's a lot nicer looking than most ghettos.

Eugene? That's hot.

If your homeless aren't where the tourists are ... where the fuck are they?

I'm not saying I know every nuance of Seattle's homeless problem, but the homeless prey on tourists, so I figure I can make a not unfair comparison to other cities during a sightseeing trip.

The Pike/Pine/1st/Pioneer Square/Waterfront area is crawling with them. I don't know where you were hanging out.

He must have been in Kent or something. Tough to differentiate the residents from the panhandlers.

I have never seen as many panhandlers, and YOUNG panhandlers, as I have in my two trips to Seattle. Downtown didn't seem much different from New York or Philly or Chicago or any other big city, but on Broadway in the Capitol Hill area, there were dozens of kids 16-25 begging on the sidewalks. It was very disturbing.

I don't think it's that bad, just wondering if you had been here or could compare them. Honestly the area around USC isn't that dangerous unless you're stupid or a pretty girl walking alone at 3am, but I didn't live in a gated community like a lot of the students here. We do have a fair share of panhandlers though.

Bwahhahaahahaa