More evidence of the Godfrey administration's effort to convert Ogden's formely rawdy cultural climate to that of Provo, Utah:
• Rally for Ogden strip club / Lounge workers and supporters worry city will close business(And yes, we checked. According to this unassailably reliable source, we're able to confirm that "there are no strip clubs located in Provo, Utah.")
We recently reported that Ogden scored fifth from last in the nation on Portfolio.com's 4/26/10 fun index, while rival city Provo finished dead last, which no doubt left Boss Godfrey mightily irked.
The Std-Ex reports that the Lighthouse Lounge has filed for an extension of time, in order to to help recuperate costs for the owners, and "now Mayor Matthew Godfrey will decide whether the lounge must close immediately or if it gets an extension."
Anybody want to take a wild guess on how Godfrey will handle this matter?
Never mind; we'll take our own wild guess:
The "Blessed Thumb" of "Blessed Boss Godfrey"So much for "the colorful history that Ogden city has had in the past."
Sadly, "Milquetoast" is the new cultural theme in Ogden, which used to be the most vibrant American city between Denver and San Francisco.
And now... we're emulating Provo?
Oh my!
Go figure.
14 comments:
Hmmm
USTC WITHHOLDING and UNEMPLOYMENT returns do not list 30 employees.
Looking forward to amended form adding 23.
A few points need making, I think:
1. I'm hard put to see how a club that's been operating downtown for half a century plus with [apparently] no more problems regarding crime, law enforcement, etc than other downtown entertainment businesses can be summarily closed for violating "community standards."
2. I am generally opposed to applying new zoning rules to businesses already in place in the areas affected. If the Council wants to create a "no sexually oriented businesses" zone downtown, it should grandfather in all such businesses of that category already legally operating in the zone. Just as it did with the new Pay Day Lender rules.
3. What consenting adults want to watch behind closed doors really doesn't bother me, provided no crimes are committed [snuff films, e.g., or kiddie porn. No such criminal conduct has been alleged regarding the LH so far as I know. ] The LH dancers, after all, are not doing their thing in the street and scaring the horses. If you think you would be offended by watching strippers, don't watch. Don't become a customer. That simple, really. I've never been to the Light House or any other strip club in Ogden. Such venues strike me as sad, rather than exciting and I don't patronize them. But that's my POV. Clearly, customers of the LH think differently, and I'm hard put to understand why a successful business downtown serving them should be summarily closed to please our local blue-noses or the Lighthouse's competing business owners.
4. Finally, sorry, Rudi, but we can't lay this one exclusively at Hizzonah's door. The Council adopted an ordinance that's put the LH on the block. Hizzonah gets to share the responsibility of truckling to the Puritans and to the LightHouse's downtown competitors for Ogden's entertainment dollars who want the business gone, but absent the Council's actions, he could not by decree simply order the LH to shut down its half-a-century old business. To be fair, whatever criticism we want to level at Ogden City Government for this grossly unfair action belongs as well to the bluenoses on the Council as to Hizzonah.
What about the other big news story dealing with the big drug arrests. Looks like 80% percent of the drugs come from illegal aliens and that they only represent 8% of the arrest. All are out of the Salt Lake area delivering the drugs to Ogden. I guess Chief Burbank was too busy touting how illegal aliens don’t commit any crime to notice. His failure to police his area creates an environment where they smuggle their drugs into Ogden. What a joke! Burbank needs to focus on what he is hired to do; Crime prevention and enforcement! Instead he is laying the foundation for a nice political career in SLC.
I am glad that we have the cops, in our area, that do what they can to protect us. At least they tell it how it is and not how they would like it to be. An Arizona type law would do wonders in addressing this issue.
"Looking forward to amended form adding 23"
Independent contractors, no doubt.
The sanitizing of Ogden continues. Eliminate the street festival, over-regulate taco carts, exterminate downtown strip clubs, etc. Is Northern Exposure next (so one news channel reported).
Here's my wild guess about what's wrong with the current City Council:
Councilwoman Gochnour has learned that people like Bill Glasmann and Mark Johnson went to the bank when they rolled over and accepted jobs with Boss Godfrey.
Is Councilwoman Gochnour jockeying for a six-figure position on the Godfrey "A" Team?
Don't Rule it out.
Councilwoman Gochnour: Same as former Rubber Stamp Coucilmen Safsten, Jorgensen and Filiaga, except for the slightly different genitalia.
GS:
Nonsense. Her votes since she came to the Council do not sustain the claim that she's an Administration rubber stamp. She doesn't always vote as I would have --- which of course is unfortunate --- but then, no council member has since I got here 8 years ago. No member.
Folks who pronounce a Council member to be an Administration lackey on the basis of a particular vote or even a handful of votes over years... and that happens with some regularity on WCF... generally lose I think any hope of effective lobbying of Council members thereafter.
Some Council members have, I agree, a depressingly long record of voting the administration line with very rare exceptions. I guess Mr. Stephenson is the current member most think of in that regard, myself included. But even he has opposed the Mayor on a handful of votes over the years, some of them significant.
In any case, Ms. Gouchnor's voting record does not sustain the claim that she's an Administration stooge, or anything close to it.
Make no mistake, Curmudgeon. The Godfrey-lackey Gochnour will not even get to a 2011 municipal election primary.
This big governmenent Godfrey socialist suck-up Gochnour is already political toast.
Utah is such a confused and silly place.
The LightHouse lounge is not even a "strip club", not by any definition outside Temple Square.
It is simply an old dive bar with a small stage where occasionally women dance; any "stripping" that occurs there is very PG13.
The idea that Downtown Ogden can have no bars where a woman might dance for the customers is silly.
This is Ogden, damn it.
The sexually oriented business laws that swept the country a few years back are simply wrong on all levels; the hypocrisy of living in a state with record-setting online porn usage, but feigned public shock at having a 50 year old strip club, that now, for no good reason, has to close.
But, what about the children!
Note to parents: you kids love nudity, porn, sex, and masturbation.
And, rightly so, they tend to think you are an idiot.
For the record, I live within shouting distance of the Lighthouse, and often attend the church across the street.
And I see nothing wrong with nudity, at all. In fact, I am pro-nudity.
A large percentage of persons in Utah are pro nudity, in their hearts.
If everyones hearts were exposed, and everyone acted on their animal impulses, Utah would be a far healthier place.
Making dancing naked illegal is like making prayer illegal.
They are both sacred activities.
Sex. Its good for you and for society. Hypocrisy and prudery? Bad for you and society.
You want to be a busy-body church lady in the mold of the Evil Gail Rudzika? Be one, this is America.
On the other hand, if you want to be an honest and Fully Realized Human, you have that right as well.
Nonsense to all Godfrey Naysayers! Go to Boss Godfrey's Salomon Center, if you and your family want to have a good time:
A Family Frolic at the Salomon Center
TPG:
Maybe. But I wish I had a buck for every prediction here at WCF long before the last election that Godfrey was finished, the little lord was going down, he was toast, etc.
Didn't happen, did it....
I agree with Mr.Cook Mayor G needs to lighten up and put thepious pitch fork down with regards to the Lighthouse
Of course, Ogden's proven track record will be to run the strip clubs out of town and out to Riverdale Road along with nearly all of the other commercial enterprise and throw away even more commercial revenue and gain another dilapidated empty lot in the heart of what was once a thriving town....it's been gone way too long.
Having recently moved back to O town from SLC I'm surprised that property tax, water/sewer, and fees for just about everything else are much higher here. Of course,how can the city make it's budget when the majority of commercial revenue is outside the city?
If the Lighthouse goes away I hope it is an omen of Mayor Godfrey's political future?
I think it premature to think that good mayor Godfrey would hasten the demise of the fine Light House establishment. After all, it is rumored in certain circles that one of the mayor's secret passions is to get in one of his finest girly costumes, pump and primp his pretty little self up real sexy and take a few turns on the Light House stage. His "tight" buddy Stu Read turned him onto the hidden pleasure when they first hooked up on that fateful evening in the head in the Kokomo oh so long ago now.
He said once that his passion for the "dance" as he calls it, comes from the love he feels from the audience and how nice it is to be appreciated and wanted by the people. In comparison he lamented on what a wonderful contrast it was from his "day"job as being one of the most reviled persons in the state.
Post a Comment