Flamingo opens, flap over?

-- Eron Ben-Yehuda

Early next year, the Flamingo Adult Theater is expected to open its

doors, and city officials fear that nothing but trouble will walk

through.

In what is perhaps an ominous sign of things to come, a member of the

family involved in the strip club was indicted this month on charges of

laundering money and trying to smuggle guns onto planes.

Despite concerns about the sexually oriented business attracting shady

characters, the city decided in June to settle a lawsuit challenging its

efforts to bar the club. Officials had to concede that, with a building

permit already issued in May, there was little left to argue about.

But that didn’t stop them from pointing the finger at one another. City

Atty. Gail Hutton, in an editorial that appeared in the Independent on

Aug. 19, blamed other city departments and the City Council for allowing

more than French cooking to take place at the site of the former Le

Marseille restaurant at 18121 Beach Blvd. But city administrators thought

Hutton should take the fall.

One of the club’s owners, Max Ahmadi, has said time and again that the

city is overreacting and that the club will not be a center for drug use,

prostitution and lewd acts by customers.

“People are afraid of what they know nothing about,” he has said.

While the club may attract out-of-towners, City Councilman Ralph Bauer

has said few customers will come from Huntington Beach.

“It’s a pretty Puritanical town,” he has said.