One by one, the sleek, white stretch limousines pull up at the curb depositing the blue business-suited bald spots who quickly slink from car door to club door. Actually, this mostly blue-collar city of , just minutes across the river from Detroit is still a pretty proper place. It offers, in fact, the kind of gritty, sincere shine that Hollywood producers often seek in Canada when they want to capture the essence of a real American city. Its problem, which has been an embarrassment to some, a source of riches to others, and a steady attraction for visitors from the U.
To skirt Canadian federal law, the dancers, including one with male strippers, often wear their G-strips on their shoulders. And their pitch is almost exclusively to the lucrative executive market with plush surroundings, and dress codes to keep out the everyday voyeur. One club regularly sends a free limousine to Detroit to pick up large groups of customers at their offices at the end of the day.
The clubs were a business sensation when they first opened in , their number once reaching 13, but now there are only nine, say local officials. While the natural law of competition has operated on its own as a sort of moral equalizer, closing down less-successful clubs, there is a good deal of consternation about what the people of Windsor can or should do. From the start, the Windsor Star has railed against the clubs.
An unscientific poll of its readers last year also showed that they too want the clubs out of town. Lately, however, Carl Morgan, editor of the 86, daily circulation newspaper, senses that not many people are upset enough about the clubs to raise a ruckus.
Although it has failed to find any increase in crime or social problems caused by the clubs, the newspaper once linked a club operator to organized crime groups in Montreal.
