NE Residents Fear Clubs Bill Would Create a 'Red-Light Zone'

By Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The dirty white warehouse marked "2120" with a big black sign didn't let on what made it different from all the other buildings just off New York Avenue in Northeast Washington. Then Kathyrn Pearson-West peered inside and saw condoms and lubricants lined up just beyond the door.

She ran back to the parking lot of the club 2120 and told her fellow community activists what she had seen.

"A pleasure pit," said Audrey Ray, one of the other women who took a look last week at the nude entertainment club that has opened on West Virginia Avenue, next to a vacant lot and across the street from an auto body shop. "We don't need this in our neighborhood."

People throughout Ward 5, particularly those in Ivy City and Trinidad, are lobbying against a D.C. Council bill that could allow as many as half a dozen adult clubs in the neighborhood. The clubs, some of which show movies and have nude dancing and private booths, were displaced from Ward 6 when the city began building the Washington Nationals baseball stadium on the Anacostia River waterfront.

There's been an uproar in Ivy City and Trinidad, a mix of residential streets wedged into a shabby industrial zone. People have been holding rallies, handing out fliers and patrolling the halls of the Wilson Building, seeking to persuade council members to oppose the bill.

The residents deny club supporters' contentions that the protest is tinged with homophobia because 2021 and many of the others appeal to gay men.

"They picked on a low-income neighborhood with a new council member and expected little resistance," Pearson-West said. "People are struggling for hope and looking for new opportunities, and you put this mess over here."

Ron Dickson, owner of one of the clubs, defended his business. He said his establishment -- Club 55, an "exotic dance club" -- pays about $14,000 annually in property taxes and about $50,000 in sales taxes. "People don't realize how much revenue that these clubs bring into the city," Dickson said.

The council is scheduled to vote today on legislation introduced by Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) that he said would allow relocation of five clubs. The bill would permit one-time transfers of the clubs' liquor licenses if the new locations have a commercial zoning designation.

Most of the potential sites meeting the requirement are in Ivy City and Trinidad. Dickson said that he looked at locations in Ward 6 and Ward 1 but that Alcoholic Beverage Control Board officials told him the council would approve only the clubs moving into Ward 5.

"I have no idea of who, when and where and why Ward 5 was picked," Dickson said. "The law says you can only go in a certain area . . . in the zone you're coming out of."

Although Graham said he didn't intend to dump the clubs in Ward 5, the new Ward 5 council member, Harry Thomas Jr. (D), and many residents are taking it that way.

"I told Graham he's going to have the fight of his life," said Thomas, who was pleased to see 300 people show up when he called a community meeting to protest the bill last week. "How much of one thing do you want in one neighborhood? This would create a red-light zone."

At today's council session, Thomas said, he will try to weaken Graham's legislation with amendments, including one that would require the clubs to be compatible with the zoning changes in the comprehensive plan for that neighborhood.

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said he hoped to mediate a deal between Graham and Thomas before the meeting. Graham said one compromise would limit the liquor license transfers to two establishments that had been forced to move directly by eminent domain.

The strong protests could make compromise difficult. Many Ward 5 residents complain that their community is saturated with nightclubs and worry that the new clubs would attract crime and drain police resources.

"This place was crawling with prostitutes," said Kathy Henderson, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner. "We just got it cleaned up."

They also fear that the clubs will have a negative effect on a $1 billion project with high-rise condominiums and upscale shops by developer James Abdo, a symbol of development along the New York Avenue corridor, bordering Bladensburg Road and Montana Avenue.

"Can you imagine being in your penthouse suite across the street and seeing this kind of establishment and what could be going on in the parking lot?" Ray asked. "Would you buy that?"

The 2120 club owner, Robert Siegel, is an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 6. Siegel purchased the property at 2120 West Virginia Ave. NE last year for $2.6 million and another building at 2046 for $3.9 million.

The club, which sells X-rated magazines, videos and sex paraphernalia, does not serve alcohol, so it did not have to wait for the legislation to be approved to open. Siegel could not be reached to comment.

Not all residents in Ward 5 have been criticizing Graham's proposal, and some say there is nothing to fear from the clubs.

Akua Osei-Bonsu and her partner, Rhonda L. Ward, bought a newly built three-story house for $515,000 about 18 months ago, just blocks from Love nightclub. The 30-something couple say they go to sleep with music blaring, and they are optimistic about the neighborhood.

"I lived near P Street [NW] before Whole Foods came. I worked on U Street during its transition. It will come," said Osei-Bonsu, a real estate agent. "I believe in Ivy City."

Several council members said they sympathize with Thomas's position and oppose the idea of having the cluster of clubs move into one ward, near a residential area.

"I take offense to all those clubs being placed in one ward," said council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7). "If you are a ward representative, you shouldn't impose something in another ward that you wouldn't put in your own."

Other council members said privately that they face a dilemma: alienating Thomas and his constituents or angering the vote-rich gay community. Thomas rejects claims that his reaction to the clubs is based on prejudice against homosexuals.

Steven Lowe of Brookland was the only one to speak in favor of the bill at the community meeting Thomas called last week.

"It feels to me like homophobia," said Lowe, who is gay. "What I hear is a lot of fear. The people who go to these clubs are not bad people."