… not Las Vegas, not New York or Miami. But Portland. The nearly 600,000 inhabitants of the largest city in the state of Oregon have a choice of more than 50 strip clubs – more than any other city in the United States. And the nightlife scene in Portland has a long tradition.
Normally the United States are well known for a rather prudish dealing with nudity. Not so the U.S. state of Oregon. For here prevail extremely liberal laws when it comes to nudity in public. It was in 1989, when a court allowed utter commercial nudity in the entire state of Oregon. Nude dancing as a form of expression fall under the freedom of speech clause, the judges based their decision. As a result of the law dozens of strip clubs were opened in Oregon’s largest city of Portland within a few years. Any attempts by the city to curb the trade failed.
Today, Portland has one of the liveliest nightlife scenes in the United States. How many strip clubs there are in fact, apparently no one knows exactly. In the network are circulating to different information. Time is talk of up to 80 nude bars that lined up on the streets of Portland’s East Side together. In any case, there are more than 50, writes the local newspaper “Willamette Week,” which has recently been an official Strip Club Guide 2014 issued for Portland and it lists the 40 best clubs from A to Z.
Art, steak and Games
A real institution among Portland’s nude bars is Mary’s Club, the oldest strip club in the city, in 1954 he opened his doors. Here already danced Courtney Love. Several movies have been filmed here. Tom Waits dedicated to the club even has its own song (“Pasties and a G-string”). And next table dancers come here regularly for musicians, comedians and other artists.
The performance of the girls who work in Mary’s is perceived as an art Nude -. Well by themselves, “If I’m up there, I’m an artist,” says about dancer Viva Las Vegas in a TV documentary about Mary’s Club. 15 year old strips the blonde at Mary’s, and she loves her job. “People always think it’s all about sex. But it is about much more than that. It’s about the performance, therefore, to delight visitors and communicate with them.”
Of course there are also in Portland a few dingy clubs where a rude tone prevailed with the strippers, writes the “Willamette Week”. Such establishments were in Portland but rather the exception. “Most of our strip clubs are relaxed, woman-friendly and attracts a broad mass of people,” says the Club Guide to the newspaper.
And indeed, one reads again and again, many of Portland’s strip clubs are much more than just nightclubs. As in ordinary pubs are meeting friends here to celebrate, eat and billiard games. The stage program is varied and often theme-based. A bit like on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg can be thought of Portland’s nightlife well – just not quite as disreputable.
Each club is different from the next, there’s rock and roll strip clubs as the “Devil’s Point”, those in which excellent steaks and more than 65 beers are available (“Acropolis”), and then turn huge stores like ” Jody’s Bar and Grill, “where you can not only eat grilled, but play in a separate area with his buddies video poker, billiards and much more.
Portland, the “Rose City” Even if it would fit perfectly – the nickname “Rose City” helps Portland not because of the many strip clubs, but because of the innumerable roses thrive here because of the ideal climate. In Washington Park, there is even a 18,000-square-foot test area especially for roses (International Rose Test Garden), where rose plants are examined from all over the world in terms of color, aroma and resistance to weather and pests out.
Portland is also in a very scenic environment, with the snow-capped in winter, Mount Hood is always in sight. In the National Forest, which extends around the 3425 meter high volcano mountain, are many lakes, streams and waterfalls that can be explored on beautiful trails. Stanley Kubrick fans can pay a visit to the southern flank of the mountain of Timberline Lodge: The hotel was in the horror movie “The Shining” with Jack Nicholson as a backdrop.
