Dig Deeper Texas

I received an District 8 email flash. It looks like someone wants to open a strip club in the now closed Hooligan’s Bar and Grill. Now let me say that I am in no way in favor of strip clubs in general and I would certainly choose not to live near one. And the proposed name “Boobie Rock” certainly does not inspire confidence that it will be a “classy” operation.

I am grateful that Cibrian has sent out the information and I do think that it’s part of her job in representing the district to do so. What bothers me is what I’m pretty sure are some exaggerated and unsupported statements. The basic premise of the objection is fine. “The sexual concept for this business is both offensive and disturbing to the neighborhood, the families, and the business that live and operate along IH-10 and Huebner.”

But then this is closely followed by “Children walk and ride their bikes on these very streets. This objectionable establishment will influence our youth inappropriately and create severe ramifications. This neighborhood is full of children and seniors who would be negatively affected by the bar.” The location is on the access road for I-10 between a car dealership and an office building. If children are walking or riding their bikes on “these very streets,” there’s a lot more to worry about passing a strip club. I would imagine they likely would be run over by a Hummer before they ever had a chance to wonder about the bar.

According to the email, “The San Antonio Police Department has received over 100 calls this year for Sugar’s Men’s Club.” Calls about what? Ultimately, I would imagine the residents of the nearby apartment buildings or the shopping centers off of Huebner would be more worried about the clubs rowdy cliental causing problems outside the club. Then why not say so? Is that what the calls were about?

I realize that this sounds like a teacher criticizing an essay and that’s not really the point. The point is to stop the strip club, who cares about the actual number of kids walking along the access road? It’s just that lately, I’ve been increasingly encountering exaggerated and alarmist speech in order to arouse action. I suppose it’s the nature of the times that it’s necessary to create a “crisis” atmosphere to get people’s attention: innocent children and little old ladies!

The reality is that I-10 is the gateway into the medical center, USAA, UTSA, and Fiesta Texas. And as we try to impress visitors with our talents and opportunities, they’ll be passing by Boobie Rock. Talk about a quality of life indicator.

Ultimately, I can’t fault Diane Cibrian from using generally accepted practices to address the situation. This is the state of politics today. So even though I didn’t vote for her and I’m still waiting for the traffic problems to disappear with a simple synchronizing of the lights (hey, wait a minute, since she said apartments were one of the major reasons for traffic congestion and the nearest neighborhoods to the bar are two apartment complexes, maybe this is a way to close down the apartment complexes–never mind) you should email her office to voice your opinion concerning the proposed men’s club.

District8@sanantonio.gov

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