Proposed adult cabaret draws opposition at neighborhood meeting
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, April 2008) About sixty people attended a community meeting on March 19th at Mega Church on Scranton to discuss proposed plans to re-establish an adult cabaret at 3245 W. 25th  (at W. 25th and Meyer at the site of the former Monroe’s which burned down last November). The meeting, organized by Clark Metro Development Corporation, was designed to “get a true feel for what the community wanted,” said Clark Metro Development Corporation board member Rebecca Kempton.

The vast majority of those signing into the meeting (39 people) also signed a petition in opposition to the proposed adult entertainment club. Five people indicated they were neutral. No one signed in to support the club. Only one person at the meeting spoke in favor of the club.

Residents attending the meeting came from both the Clark Metro and Tremont neighborhoods. Meeting organizers said Tremont West Development Corporation was invited to co-sponsor the meeting, but declined, choosing instead to include the issue on the agenda of its Metro North Block Club.

In opening the meeting, Clark Metro Executive Director Maria Davila, noted that representatives from the City of Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals, the Building and Housing Department, Planning Commission, Community Development Department, Community Relations Department, the Law Department, and the Second Police District, had been invited to the meeting to hear residents concerns and answer their questions. In addition Ward 14 Councilman Joe Santiago and nearby Ward 15 Councilman Brian Cummins were invited to the meeting. Davila noted that, of the city officials invited, only representatives of the Community Relations Department and the Second District Police chose to attend the meeting.

Early on questions were raised whether the adult entertainment at Monroe’s was never legal in the first place. A resident asked, “Why were they allowed to stay open, when they were not a legal use?”

Clark Metro Board President Randy Buchko expressed regret that no city officials were on hand to respond to this question. “We anticipated the city would send some representatives so they could answer some of your concerns.”

Henry Senyak, a member of the Cleveland City Council Ad Hoc Liquor Committee Task Force, outlined a history of the adult businesses on W. 25th Street. He noted a change in city law governing adult entertainment establishments occurred in 1989.  He also outlined some history of the city’s inability to enforce that law. He noted that another adult entertainment venue on W. 25th Street was denied a variance for adult entertainment in the late 1990s. Its appeals in Common Pleas Court and at the 8th District Court of Appeals also failed. But despite this, the club continued to have adult entertainment at the site. Senyak attributed this to the city of Cleveland not having enough enforcement. He urged residents to call Mayor Frank Jackson and Councilman Joe Santiago and other Cleveland City Council representatives to urge a review of adult businesses in the city.

The lone supporter of the club, a resident of Meyer Avenue, and a local business owner, said that when Monroe’s burned down it had been providing 65 jobs to the community. He said restaurants and carry outs in the neighborhood did business with the customers attracted to the neighborhood by Monroe’s. He contended that the City of Cleveland could not afford to lose the jobs created by Monroe’s. The drugs and prostitution in the neighborhood were due to economic conditions and had nothing to do with the adult entertainment establishments.

Another resident quickly disagreed with the contention that the adult entertainment establishments had no impact on drugs and prostitution. She said, “All those businesses give birth to these little side effects. If you do get rid of them it has to have an effect.”

Clark Metro Executive Director Davila, supported the resident’s contention by reading from the City of Cleveland legislation establishing an adult entertainment zone in the flats noting, “the city of Cleveland recognizes the negative secondary effects of adult entertainment – right in the codified ordinances.”

A young woman spoke against the concept of a strip club as an economic development tool for the neighborhood. She asked that something to help kids like a recreation center be built instead. She said a strip club did not provide the kind of role models young women in the neighborhood should aspire to emulate. How will this set an example to young people? She advocated economic development that will lead to “education and a career and help make life better.”

Another resident wondered how such development fit into the W. 25th plan paid for by Clark Metro. “Didn’t it call for more family oriented development?”

A 2007 graduate of Lincoln West High School, who lives right behind the site of the former Monroe’s, said that the absence of the club on the corner has been plus for the neighborhood. He said when the club was open “it had only a negative effect.”

A pastor of a church located within a 100 feet of the proposed club noted some of the social services provided by the church and said of the proposed club, “In this community we don’t need it.”

A resident of Poe and Fulton urged residents of the neighborhood around Meyer and W. 25th to go to their councilperson and don’t back down from the fight to prevent the establishment from locating in the neighborhood. She described walking by a similar establishment while pregnant and being pushed into the street and almost killed by a patron of an establishment that was on the site of what is now the Fulton Branch Library.

A resident of the Old Brooklyn neighborhood noted that neighborhood just successfully prevented another nightclub from opening. The club withdrew its application for a variance in the face of overwhelming neighborhood opposition, which included a petition with over 250 signatures, he testified. He said, “We do not need these types of establishments in the city until we rebuild our schools. This is not economic development at all.”

A Scranton Avenue resident asked what the plan and the vision for W. 25th Street was. He said he keeps hearing about the W. 25th Street plan but has never seen a copy. He wondered why the neighborhood and councilperson didn’t oppose Monroe’s when it first opened.

A long time resident responded, “when Monroe’s opened we okayed it as a restaurant. It changed over the years.”

Resident Cornell Odell said the site would be “a great place for a computer lab.”

A representative from the staff of the Cleveland Board of Education offered the opposition of the Board of Education to the proposed club. He noted the Lincoln West High School Principal had “expressed his concern” about the proposed site, but could not be in attendance at the meeting.

At the closing of the meeting Clark Metro Executive Director Maria Davila reminded residents that the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing on the proposed adult cabaret was scheduled for April 21st at 10:30 a.m. on the 5th floor of Cleveland City Hall. At the urging of neighborhood residents representatives two neighborhood churches in attendance at the meeting offered vans for transporting residents to the hearing. To sign up for a ride to the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing, residents can call Clark Metro Development Corporation at 741-9500.

(see related photos here)

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