Not long ago, a newly retired Lusty Lady (and occasional SF Weekly contributor) named Sandy Bottoms dropped the bomb on her blog -- San Francisco's beloved Lusty Lady, the only worker-owned, unionized peep show in the nation, was teetering on the brink of closure.
Several performers, along with most of the board of directors and the head madam, have decided to walk away from the unique business. Miss Bottoms cited "a disintegrating system and hostile working environment within a failing business model" as reasons for her departure but declined to go into detail about the challenges facing the Lusty Lady.
Bottoms' blog generated outcry over the potential loss of the club, but this isn't the first time the Lusty Lady has been on the brink of closing its infamous peep show windows. The first chapter of the saga came in 2003, when the owners, faced with mounting costs and competition from readily accessible Internet raunchiness, decided to close. However, the Lusties already had some collective organizing experience under their garter belts, having unionized in 1997, and decided to buy the business. The purchase ushered in the current era of collective ownership.
The introduction of the cooperative upped the Lusty Lady's radical feminist appeal factor, but apparently didn't give it the necessary fiscal boost to firmly propel it out of the red. The co-op model itself dwells in an area of legal limbo -- worker cooperatives, unlike corporations, don't have a legal identity. If a co-op goes into debt, creditors can pursue the personal assets of the workers themselves. Co-op members can protect themselves by applying to become an LLC, which protects workers' personal finances from being drawn into a business controversy. Although representatives of the Lusty Lady could not be reached for comment, it seems the founding members may have overlooked the option of gaining LLC status. (Other local co-ops, take notes.)
As Bottoms explained, the Lusties are faced with the difficult decision of walking away or risking their own money.
(For more on the financial ins and outs of stripping, read Rachel Aimee's op-ed.)
Now, the local legend has launched a last-ditch effort to save itself. The Lusty Lady is attempting to raise $25,000 dollars in just 21 days, via an online fundraising campaign. (Its chosen platform is Indiegogo, which, unlike Kickstarter, allows fundraisers to keep whatever amount they raise before the deadline, even if the goal is not met.) The campaign states that the funds will go toward keeping the Lusty Lady operating and sprucing up the space. The remaining Lusties also hope to launch a publicity campaign to remind San Franciscans of their one-of-a-kind opportunity to play out their fantasies with some radical, sex-positive union members -- all through a pane of glass, of course.
You can donate to the Lusty Lady by visiting its Indiegogo site (http://www.indiegogo.com/thelustylady), or you can pitch in by visiting to the venerable San Francisco institution itself. Who knows? It might be your last chance to cross "visit a worker-owned, unionized peep show" off your bucket list.
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