Joe Guillen

Detroit Free Press

The City of Detroit wants to shut down a long-standing strip club on the east side that community leaders say has been a magnet for violence and other nefarious activity.

A two-year police investigation uncovered several violations at Erotic City, 19326 Conant, including selling and smoking marijuana, patrons touching dancers while indecent and noise complaints, officials said at a news conference this morning at a church parking lot across the street from the club. In September, two employees were caught on video firing guns outside the club.

"Our neighborhoods will no longer be a pornographer's paradise," said 3rd District Councilman Scott Benson, who helped lead the effort to close Erotic City. "Businesses need to take note that they must comply with the law, norms and mores of our communities if they wish to continue doing business here in Detroit."

Erotic City's business license was revoked after a hearing in December, but city law allows it to remain open for 90 days while the owner appeals the revocation.

Patrick McQueeney, a lawyer representing the club, said the city's administrative hearing was one-sided. He said nobody from the club has been arrested or charged with shooting a gun unlawfully.

“Obviously, it’s our client’s position that the First Amendment protects our client's right to offer the form of entertainment that they offer,” McQueeney said. "It's our position that the hearing itself was largely unfair.”

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Douglas Baker of the city law department said the city code allowing businesses to stay open after their license is revoked could be amended in the near future. Baker said enforcing Erotic City's violations is part of a larger strategy to hold business owners accountable for practices that bother residents or threaten neighborhood peace.

"We can start improving vastly the quality of life in this city and that's what our commitment is. We are fighting blight on many fronts," he said. "We are going after commercial property owners that are not keeping their properties in a safe and inhabitable manner."

Shirley Burch, who has lived in the neighborhood near Erotic City for more than 40 years, said the property has been a strip club for more than 10 years. She said it was previously called Chocolate City.

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Burch pointed to homes right behind the club. She said a park is nearby and kids walk past the club on their way to school. "Right in a residential area — it's not good," she said after the news conference.

Pastor Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church said Detroit's elected officials have to keep putting pressure on businesses that contribute to crime. He faulted City Council members elected in 2009 and prior for failing to enact a law restricting the proliferation of strip clubs. Pointing at Erotic City, he said, "you won't find that in Oakland County. Not one time.

"When we talk about these kinds of businesses, when we talk about marijuana dispensaries, they're not in Gilbertville, they're not in the new erected hockey town of Chris Ilitch; they're in our neighborhoods," Winans said. "Our children have to pass strip clubs and weed joints to go to school, which says to them that this is OK."

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Contact Joe Guillen: 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joeguillen.