Answer to “growing Porn Industry Downtown”
Posted: December 29, 2011 Filed under: Politics 10 Comments »A Poster the other day referenced a “growing porn industry in downtown Lowell” Most of us had no idea what she was talking about but Scoop Myers at the Sun found out and shared it in this POST on the Column Blog.
You have to read the entire story and the picture with it, but here’s just a snippet to gain your attention:
You may have seen the sexy posters downtown or noticed the rubber-clad patrons entering Gemstones above the Blue Shamrock on Market Street On the second Saturday of every month the club hosts “Jaded Night” a fetish party. They require a “strict fetish” dress code to gain entrance.
Allowable outfits include: Latex, rubber or vinyl, chainmail, leather, lingerie, footie pajamas, a tuxedo or simply pasties and a thong.
Or, you may choose to come dressed as a character such as: Snow White, a banana or a plumber.
I’m afraid to leave the comments available on this but will in hopes you use restraint and knowing I may in fact not publish anything that makes me blush!
Oh Lordy. There’s a lot to like about Lowell!!!!!!
Oh Bud and Rodney will be parked across the street dressed as Batman and Robin, taken pictures of the freak show going into the club at night.
While Batgirl aka the Lowell sun reporter in the back seat, writing down false names on who was seen entering the club!
This whole thing is bogus. (Not the diary, Gerry) No one gave a hoot when there was a long line of Goths hanging around what is now Savanna something or other. We could only guess at the uproar, if Life Alive went risque.
Ya wanna bust Pangi’s chops about something credible, folks? Okay. But, this?
We got 99 problems, but a fetish club ain’t one.
Letterman’s Top 10 List of why a Fetish Club is good for Lowell:
10 – It gives the old folks a place to let it all hang out
9 – Finally provides a legitimate reason for someone to wear a thong
8 – FM shoe sales in downtown Lowell should increase a little
7 – Hookers will have a nice place to keep warm in the winter months
6 – Sales at the trashier downtown clothing stores should skyrocket
5 – Betting on who will be the first Lowell politician seen entering the club in
spandex will become the number one gambling activity as soon as the
Super Bowl squares are all sold out
4 – Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown could stage a debate there while dressed
in accordance with club rules
3 – Newt Gingrich will feel right at home
2 – It’s better than another Greek restaurant downtown
1 – Last call at 2:00 a.m. will be a site to be seen
There is a reason that Boston forced the Combat Zone out of town, and it wasn’t puritan sensibility but simple economic comprehension.
The elements that comprise the sex trade and the often illegal back rooms that profit from it (yes, Virginia, the Combat Zone was mobbed up) and the customers that it draws do far more to damage the ability of a city to transfer from a depressed economy with jobs and population leaving town (the condition I saw in Boston from the 1950s through mid 70s) than any, oh say, homeless center like Living Waters at St Anne’s in Lowell.
I am not particularly happy about the location of Living Waters, but this small charity invoked railing from City Councilors like Councilor Elliot, local newspaper front page coverage, outcry from downtown business and, finally, a tense meeting with the City Manager, head of DPD, Chamber of Commerce, Lowell Plan, Nat’l Parks, public high school, neighborhood rep (me), St Anne’s rep and Living Waters!
The invasion of downtown by an industry that has a demonstrably negative effect on economic prosperity has invoked — silence. I think, in part, because of ignorance that it exists at the level it does.
I think, also, that former Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos, has disproportionate influence in Lowell but, clearly, with few good private sector job opportunities now that he has left the Senate. I cannot believe that I am the only individual in town who is stunned that, having departed the MA Senate as head of Ways and Means, he has no better aspiration than to become City Manager of Lowell. Surely this is a joke some former political enemy if floating as karmic payback. And, truly, apologies to those who hold or held that job, and august as it may be, but to go from aspiring to and achieving MA Senate/Ways and Means to aspiring to city manager . . . Surely a joke.
But my opinion aside, one opinion that I believe should count in the sex trade discussion would be that of the Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
How does UML recruit the best and brightest in MA and the USA and internationally when young Bob’s or Maya’s or Rajiv’s parents come to check out Lowell? One weekend staying at UML’s ICC and walking about downtown in the evening and good bye prospective student and, at least in Rajiv’s case, likely full-tuition prospect. Also, good bye for all of us to what a robust, well respected UML can and should bring to the City.
Lowell has significant decisions to make about allowing or resisting the change that comes from endeavoring to reposition itself from a city dismissed as well past its prime, most known for an alcoholic poet, a fighter and a historical story of mills and mill girls/immigrants to a destination city that draws on the best of that past — arts, tenacity, innovation and flexible/newcomer population.
The local paper has a job to do in illuminating the activities downtown. The venues, the activities, the owners, the behaviors of patrons, the demand on the police and the reaction of those who, like Chancellor Meehan and the board of the Lowell Plan and every City Councilor and all residents of the city have a vested interest in answering the question
What do we want Lowell to be?
Welcome to an unintended consequence of the “creative economy.”
Or, should I say, Willkommen?
I want Lowell to include everyone. I won’t find fault with those that desire to “let their freak flags fly,” as David Crosby championed, back in the day. Y’know? Before the rust.
There are always whack-jobs who claim that anyone different is a danger to the community and a detriment to the neighborhood; in the 1960′s and 1970′s racists were opposed to having blacks drink out of the same water fountain.
Today, the new target for the old racist mentality is people who are different in the way they dress. Same ignorant mindset, different target.
As for how will the city of Lowell ever survive having “these people” in it? Well… New York City does just fine, and has a lower crime rate. Maybe we should bring in more ‘freaks’ and kick out more of the ignorant/racist mindset people who complain about them and commit hate crimes?
HA HA HA HA HA !!
Can we really be so shallow as to propose that those whose personal lives are different from the majority are somehow a plague upon the community and danger to college recruiting? What comes next? Do we look to expel homosexuals? Will those who condemn the “JADED” party goers next attack minorities? it seems we have to look to become better people ourselves rather than attack those who are different.
If we are going to crack down on these groups, then don’t forget the Cambodians! Who do they think they are bringing all of these markets with so much variety into Lowell?!? And what is this about building the largest buddhist temple on the east coast? Why do we want their peace based religion here in Lowell? Oh, and lets not forget about all of the yummy food restaurants they use to lure us into their culture! C’mon people, lets get them, the homosexuals, and these evil party goers back to their own countries!