You've seen them along Northeast 82nd Avenue and lining the suburban strips of Washington County. With names like Hotties, Pussy Cats and Private Rendezvous, they advertise services from fetish fulfillment and Jell-O wrestling to rubdowns and shower shows. They first sprang up more than 15 years ago. Now, one operator estimates more than 15 exist in the Portland metro area alone. Euphemistically called lingerie shops, they're also sometimes referred to as "jack shacks. Others could argue they're merely venues for adults to have a harmless good time.
Now an effort to rein in the shops has become what some activists see as a danger to Oregon's vaunted free-speech protections, which rank among the strongest in the nation. After neighbors protested a string of such businesses in Washington County last year, Barker and a few legislative allies are trying to contain the industry with several billsβincluding two constitutional amendments that could go before Oregon voters in You can quote me on that," says Jeannie Timpke, a lingerie-shop owner in Portland.
She says she strictly forbids prostitution. Cameras running in the private rooms keep the workers safe and clients on the up-and-up. But she says women who have worked in other shops tell her things are different elsewhere. Any regulation, I will celebrate it.
One way to curb the industry would be to let cities limit the shops by zoning where they can go. But that's impossible now because of a unanimous Oregon Supreme Court decision. The court ruled against the City of Portland for raiding a porn shop, saying it violated the free-speech clause of the Oregon Constitution. The Legislature has tried repeatedly to give cities the right to zone sex shops. But changes to the state constitution require voter approval, and voters defeated three such measures, in , and The last two tries came closest to successβboth times, 52 percent of voters said no.
But state Sen. Mark Hass D-Raleigh Hills says the lingerie shops have now proliferated, and voters are sick of them in their neighborhoods. He attended rallies last fall against a string of shops on Canyon Road. It was jammed to the gills. These are Democrats and Republicans who are just fed up with these places. In summer, the shops in Washington County feature bikini-clad women in wading pools outside beckoning passing motorists, Hass says. Lawmakers are trying two different proposed constitutional amendments.
