Portland, Oregon is a beautiful city, there is no doubt about that. The downtown and Westside are clean, easy to navigate and a pleasure to walk around. The Eastside has its own burgeouning bohemian neighborhoods and real estate is still affordable, especially when compared to Seattle, LA, NY, and the Bay area. But what most people don't realize when thyeyfirst come to this little city is that it has a pretty sordid and seedy underworld.

Portland, often referred to as "Pornland" by locals, has more strip clubs and adult video arcades per capita than any other city in the United States.....yes including Las Vegas. Surprising isn't it? I know I was taken aback by this statistic at first. But then I started noticing how many of these venues I was passing on a regular basis just to get to the mall, a store, the library. There are strip clubs and adult video stores located RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET of high schools in several areas. What kind of message does that send to kids? I would not consider myself a prude or a bible thumper, I just dont think that kids should have to go to school in the vicinty of one of these places. Great, so if they don't go on to college, they know where else they can make a living?

And there are establishments that call themselves "Lingerie" studios, but that are better known locally as "jack shacks". On NE 82nd Avenue there are at least 4, all of them right by a high school. These jack shacks advertise "live lingerie models", but it is common knowledge that these places are nothing more than brothels. A client will walk in, select a gril and then is taken back to a room where there are no cameras and no supervision and the girl is supposed to stand there and model lingerie or give a lap dance. Anyone who believes that nothing more takes place in these situations is an idiot. There have been countless exposes on these places in local papers, but it seems as if no one blinks an eye at it.

There was an articlr in the local "hipster" newspaper a few months ago that talked about one of the more popular strip clubs in Portland and gave it a top notch review...even mentioned how novel it was that the manager's daughter was one of the dancers at the club and that he had taught her a lot of her moves. Now is it me, or is that just completely WRONG? I was mortified when I read that. Why is this town so lax on the skin trade, I wonder? Is it the weather? Is it the rampant meth epidemic? I just dont get it!

I have lived in a lot of cities and never seen anything like it. The closest I would say was Amsterdam, but even there, it is more kitschy than seedy. I am all for people's rights to express themselves, etc. and I am not condeming the dancers or their clients by any means, I just dont undertand why it is such an integral part of this city, I have met people abroad who have heard of Portland's porn industry....I mean, seriously. People wonder if we have running water up here but they know there's a tittie bar every block or so. When I was living in LA, a friend of mine told me her sister had moved to Portland and her roommate was an exotic dancer. She said that that is just how it is in Oregon. If a girl can't get an education or a decent job she moves to Portland and becomes a stripper. I am not a fan of this reputation Portland is making for itself.
Way to represent!

But I am not sure there is much that can be done about it. Obviously there's a need here for this type of entertainment, and where there's a need there will be a way to feed it. Ugh.