Illinois town bans stripping because of fracking
There will be no more of this in Fairfield.
It’s bad enough that the fracking boom is making it more difficult for Americans to breathe clean air, feel safe drinking their water, and stand on steady ground. Now the boom is preventing anybody in one Illinois town from dancing with their clothes off.
Fairfield, Ill. (population 5,000 and shrinking) is bracing for an influx of frackers, most of whom will be men from out of town. (Despite promises of jobs associated with fracking, fracked communities normally discover that most of the work goes to experienced hands who fly in from Texas and other industry hotspots.)
A city committee charged with preparing the town for fracking warned that it could create a market for strip clubs. So, acting on the advice of the committee, the Fairfield City Council unanimously passed an ordinance this week that prohibits nude, seminude, and exotic dancing. It doesn’t even matter whether the stripping is done for profit or if it’s, er, gratuitous. From the Evansville Courier & Press:
The ordinance makes it “illegal for any person, firm, corporation, partnership, limited liability company or any other entity to operate any kind of business which provides as a form of entertainment either gratuitously or at cost, nude, seminude or exotic dancers.”
The pre-emptive ordinance was drawn up after news accounts began surfacing about strip clubs popping up around the oil work camps in North Dakota, and a resulting increase in criminal activity.
Under the newly enacted Fairfield ordinance, anyone violating the law may be fined $5,000 for each day the violation exists.
Memo to any roughnecks headed to Fairfield for fracking jobs: Pack porn.
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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