Three women came forward to chastise the Salt Lake City Council last week, and with each mini-speech the scolding intensified.
"You've been given the job of taking care of women and children here," said Maurica Reynolds. "And you've let us down. You've allowed pornography to be displayed on our streets . . . shame on you."
Reynolds was protesting Club Expose, the new private club near the 2100 South TRAX station. Before it opened March 16, owner Chung Ji Dai advertised that it would have "bikini dancing" as part of its live entertainment lineup. He displayed signs indicating that Club Expose had immediate job openings.
"Once one of these businesses is let into our community, it'll be like a magnet," Ann Jimenez warned the City Council last week. "People will see that and wonder what it's like inside. We don't want that in our neighborhood. It's scary."
Salt Lake City has other private clubs with similar entertainment, but Club Expose is the first such establishment in the 200 West-2100 South area.
"Do you want that kind of trash in front of your children?" demanded Karen Haney, the final council-meeting speaker on the topic. Her voice shaking, she vowed to forbid her teenagers from riding TRAX as long as the private club operated near her neighborhood station. "We don't want to have to move out of this city," Haney added.
"Thank you for your comments," replied Councilman Tom Rogan. The women have continued to voice their disgust with their new neighbor, but city officials say the owner has met licensing requirements. The area's zoning allows the private club to operate there.
After a week of sparse business and staunch protest from women such as Reynolds, Dai has some complaints of his own.
In his native China, America was sometimes described as "a free country," Dai said. When he moved to Oakland, Calif., in 1986, he found it to be somewhat freer than the People's Republic. But in Utah, that notion "is wrong. It's not real." Dai said he's been pestered by protesters, visited by police and made to jump through city-licensing hoops.
According to the Salt Lake business permits and licensing office, Dai had to upgrade his building's restroom facilities in order to convert it into a private club. The place used to be an automobile repair shop. With the change in the building's use, Dai was also required to ensure that the parking lot had proper striping. Dai has a license for "professional dancing" by women clothed in swimsuits.
"You know that swimsuit license is a farce," Reynolds said last week. But Dai insists his dancers, when and if they're hired, will look no different from those who frolic at a neighborhood pool. "If these women don't want their children to see bikinis, they shouldn't go to public swimming pools or beaches," he said.
Dai previously owned the Double Deuce, a Murray private club that was demolished last year to make room for a new hospital.
So far at his new club, "it's very tough," with no bikini dancing and few patrons. "Everybody's giving me a hard time. What's wrong with me? I followed the city's instructions."
E-MAIL: durbani@desnews.com