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Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Op-Ed: A fetid neighborhood strip club in our bucolic town


Deja Vu strip club on Bothell Way
in Lake Forest Park
Photo from Google maps
Kirsten Potter is the mother of a school-age daughter and a resident of Lake Forest Park


Hello Neighbors. 

A quick update on the happenings around our fetid neighborhood strip club. The first quarter of school just wrapped up and so far this year the neighborhood kids and I have gingerly stepped around the occasional used condom in the Deja Vu parking lot on our way to the bus stop.

On her way home from school last month, my 12-year-old was delayed getting off the bus and walked through the parking lot after her school mates. 

A Deja Vu patron was in his car and delivered a line straight out of a Grimm’s fairytale: “Heh girlie, are your parents around? C’mere…” 

Frozen with terror, it wasn’t until he actually reached out to grab her that she awoke from the spell fear had cast over her, and ran the rest of the way home.

It took a while to stop the tears and calm her breathing.

I nearly didn’t bother writing any of this. After years of complaining, it seems that whoever has the authority to do something about this-- to decide that no, we as a community don’t want one of our few local businesses to offer private dances on a giant neon screen— doesn’t care. 

The Council or the Mayor or the citizenry continue to overlook the fifteen-foot neon legs and all that they represent, and partake of whatever tax revenue this establishment presumably brings in. But at what cost?

There are only 11 strip clubs in the entire state. We continue to choose to host one of them in our small bucolic town. I look longingly across the street to FloAnna’s Diner and wonder what other businesses could be using the Deja Vu location instead?

Perhaps someplace our community could gather to enjoy a drink or a meal or live music? Perhaps a multi-family housing unit? Perhaps somewhere that doesn’t promote the idea that women and girls are there to be solicited and touched.

Deja Vu Inc is a franchise run out of Las Vegas, but that building is owned locally— apparently by a family right here in LFP. They could choose to lease it to someone else…. if anyone cares enough to have them do so.


1 comment:

  1. What happened to your daughter? Sounds terrifying. I am so sorry that happened. Statistically patrons of strip clubs are way less likely to be pedophiles than Boy Scout leaders. And priests. And all kinds of other clergy groups. Also, you do have the option of not walking to the parking lot of a private business.

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