Did Mountlake Terrace Make Right Choice On Nude Dancing?

The city of Mountlake Terrace has given preliminary approval of a series of ordinances that will allow adult entertainment in the city despite an outcry from some residents.

Faced with state and U.S. supreme court rulings that determined nude dancing was protected under the Constitution, the city opted to pass restrictive ordinances that limit the businesses to a small, light-industrial area in the city; prevent employees from accepting tips; set various fees for such businesses; and prevent contact between customers and dancers.

The ordinances were drafted with the help of a citizens committee as a way to restrict the businesses without banning them.

Do you agree, or should cities like Mountlake Terrace continue to fight such businesses despite the court rulings?

Here's what some readers think:

I think we need to get started at wiping these businesses out of our communities. The higher courts are not supporting any legislation that helps preserve our families, but only that which tears them down. If it takes some sort of revolutionary action, we need need to preserve our families and our communities and not let the courts decide that we have no right to do so.

Our government is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people. I have not seen evidence of this in the past couple of years.

What can we do? We can work together to change these things for the better. Connie Abbott Everett

Yes, I do agree with the way the City of Mountlake Terrace is handling adult entertainment. I think that if people choose to have that kind of entertainment that's their right. People have the right to sell it. I think people also have the right to zone it and control it.

If they want to do it, they can go someplace that wants them. Mountlake Terrace doesn't really want them, and this is a community for children and families, and we don't have industry here. They belong in certain zones and that's fine. They're pushing to come in here, they're going to have to live by the rules that Mountlake Terrace sets. Linda Thimot Mountlake Terrace

I do not agree with the way the city is handling the adult entertainment issue. Mountlake Terrace is a small community, we have no industry, we have very few commercial businesses. It's a bedroom community, and I believe there is no area that would be suitable for this kind of entertainment. Laverna Cobb Mountlake Terrace

I think that Mountlake Terrace should continue to fight adult entertainment in the city because I feel that people who go to these places are sick. This sickness is spreading throughout our whole society, on the TV also . . . Adult entertainment is a sick thing. I believe it is. I'm proud of the people who are fighting it. Johanna Sweeney Mountlake Terrace

I was appalled when I saw the map of the proposed adult-entertainment zone in The Times. My teenage daughters both work within that area. I'm terrified. There's a low-income apartment complex on 66th and 219th, where mostly single mothers and their children live. For a light-industrial zone, there sure are a lot of apartments and houses. I hope the city of Mountlake Terrace keeps fighting to keep adult entertainment out of the city. Let's all get a clue and fight to keep pornography out of our area. Let the entertainment seekers go to Honey's or Sugars, or rent movies, or go to downtown Seattle. Evelyn Stivers Mountlake Terrace

I do not agree with that because Mountlake Terrace is a small community, and if you need to go to adult entertainment you have one at about 170th and Aurora and one about 150th on Lake City Way. I do not feel that Mountlake Terrace needs it, because I'm just moving there. It's a nice, quiet community, and I'd like to keep it that way. Gary Kummert Mountlake Terrace ------------------------------------------------------------------- Next week's question

Do you expect to spend more this year than last in Christmas shopping?

Last Friday - the day after Thanksgiving - marked the official start of the Christmas shopping season. As if to offer proof, the weekend drew throngs of shoppers to the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood and to the Everett malls in scenes merchants hope will signal the start of a strong retail season.

But recent news about cutbacks in Boeing Co. production, which could result in the loss of 1,500 more jobs, and low state employment levels have indicated the region's economic slowdown is anything but over. Merchants fear this could have an impact on shopping during traditionally the heaviest retail season.

Will the bad economic news affect your shopping this year? Do you expect to spend more, less or the same as last year?

Please phone your responses by 8 p.m. Monday to the Community Voices reader call-in line, 464-3337. Include your full name (please spell it), your city and a daytime home or work telephone number (comments will not be published without verification). Selected responses will be published in next Thursday's Snohomish Life.