Recent Stories with tag strip

The P-Patches are the most visible evidence of Seattle's unstoppable green thumb. Established in the '70s, when Seattle was emptying out and lots stood vacant, they've survived at least two major real estate booms since then, thanks to the pitchfork lobbyists of the P-Patch Trust, Seattle Tilth, and others.

The City of Seattle oversees 73 P-Patches in conjunction with the Trust, which works out to 1,900 plots over 23 acres. The largest and oldest, northeast Seattle's Picardo P-Patch, looks bucolic enough, but plenty of people can think of "better" uses for that land, including neighboring University Prep. Meanwhile, plenty of other people just want in; the P-Patch wait list can be 3-5 years long.

That kind of entrenchment--this here's our land, we farm it!--is why you don't see vacant lots today sprouting greenery right and left. Developers are skeptical about how temporary P-Patches turn out to be. And the best use of public space is not a fight the city wants to be in the middle of, either. That's why the Trust exists, to get P-Patches off the city's Parks holdings: Actual parks, open to all, are a slam-dunk. But city sponsorship of what are essentially "private" garden plots with no term limits is a more contentious issue.

Urban farming, in contrast, isn't "just" about P-Patches. In Seattle, you can now get a free permit online to cultivate your parking strip. We're talking about the works, raised beds, what-have-you. But the city is looking at going even further, reports Urban Farm Hub, to encourage people to take hoes in their own hands. If all goes well, city dwellers may be able to plant up to 4,000 sq. ft. without a permit....

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Just two weeks ago, the iconic downtown peep joint The Lusty Lady announced it would close, partly due to the recession (in 2001, the dancers reportedly made $27 an hour) and partly internet porn. The incessant punning of its marquee, the live nude girls--it all wraps up end of June.

While a few bluenoses were always certain Seattle could show itself to better advantage than with a strip show spitting distance from SAM, I think most people preferred to think of The Lusty Lady as a risqué marquee, and leave it at that, Erika Langley's book aside. Ironically, that attitude may have helped do them in--marquee appreciation doesn't pay the rent.

Now, in one fell swoop, the Colacurcio stripper empire that extended from Tacoma to Everett is being shut down, but this time no one's wearing their public mourning face. Federal prosecutors says the strip clubs (and their management) were a 50-year-old "scourge on the community," reports the Seattle Times. The charges, including prostitution, money laundering, and RICO, are right out of gangland lore.

(Of course, the news that one undercover officer "spent spent at least $16,835 buying more than 130 lap dances without making a single arrest" has also become legend, and "Strippergate" tarnished the reputations of City Council members Jim Compton, Heidi Wills, and Judy Nicastro.)

Everett's Honey's will be demolished, to the delight of city leaders, but Tacoma's Fox's, Shoreline's Sugar's, and Seattle's Rick's are slated to be sold, and could reopen.