Friday, February 26, 2010

Horrors, mysteries, misdeameanors

A man dead after a triple shooting in Sandtown-Winchester, 1542 N. Fulton Ave.
Also a man shot in the chest this morning at Stonewood and Northwood Rds.

Remember the three children murdered in Fallston? The father and brother of the convicted killers, Victor Espinoza, was killed in Mexico by his wife. Will she now be able to shed some light on what happened? (Unfortunately all of the Sun's story links are now non-functional, but here's some backstory from the Post.)

Duuuude. Testimony on the medical marijuana bill scheduled for today. Also under consideration: a bill to keep bars open until 4 a.m. Passed: a bill to ban BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups.
Plus, bitching homophobes & lauding lesbians

Also, the "Senate has approved legislation to ban strip searches for most misdemeanor or traffic offenses." Most?

The world's best-named strip club, Chubbies, has been shut down for a year; their lawyer says the penalty excessively hefty

22 comments:

ppatin said...

I really don't know why Fells Point has all this hate for Chubbies. I'm not a strip club patron, but my old house was less than a block away from them and they never caused any trouble that I can remember. The drunken neighbors up the block were much more of a nuisance.

Anonymous said...

It's the natural outcome of gentrification, I guess. More moneyed folks move into their newly rehabbed rowhomes and immediately start trying to impose a kind of bourgeois respectability on the place. Look at what happened to Fletcher's, the neighborhood hounded them for years.

The old Colonial Inn across the street was always way more of a problem than Chubbies ever was, but that place was closed down last year. The next target will probably be the less "sophisticated" bars up the street.

Cham said...

I used to visit Fells Point all the time. I liked the little stores, inexpensive art galleries, restaurants and coffee places. I often had conversations with the old men sitting on the benches in the square.

The stores, galleries and coffee places are mostly gone now. The men have vacated the premises. In their place are businesses of which I have no use, as I don't need to buy a house nor do I need an expensive restaurant. The area attracted homeowners who wanted a hip urban neighborhood with a personality. Once they got here they did their best to get rid of what made Fells Point Fells Point. I say they are succeeding enthusiastically. The titty bars should have seen the writing on the wall. It's just a matter of time before we see a Starbucks.

Luckily for me, the neat places to go are simply relocating to other areas. I just walk in a different direction.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe what I'm reading...how does someone stand up for a place like this? I live around the corner and you should see the trash that this place, the Inn across the street and the bar up the street (across from the BK), bring in. Chubbies is filled with a bunch of drug dealing Perkins Homes guys that just yell at women as they walk by. Why would I want that in my neighborhood? How is this a little place like inexpensive art galleries, restaurants, or coffee house?? The bar up the street has people in it that just scream at eachother, have needles on the ground outside and harrass neighbors (again mostly women) as they walk by. How are these places making Fells Point better? So what if people are moving in and trying to improve it!? I love all the little things that makes Fells Point, Fells Point but could someone please explain to me how having a strip club that brings outside trash to the area, is part of making Fells Point great?!

ppatin said...

Anon:

My experience was very different from yours. I used to live on the 500 block of S. Chapel Street, so I was quite close to Chubbies. Nobody there ever caused me any problems. The Colonial Inn was a different story, but thankfully that place is gone. And as for why I'm standing up for them, they were a local business that provided jobs (shitty ones, sure) and never cause me any grief. I don't like seeing people hounded out of business like that.

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying that Chubbies was a wholesome family establishment, the place should have been permanently ended when they were busted for prostitution a few years ago. It just seems wrong to move into a neighborhood with a traditionally working-class, rough-around-the-edges social scene and start clearing all of that away because you'd rather have Georgetown than Pigtown. I mean, why did you bother to move into the city to begin with?

Anonymous said...

ppatin:

The ownership of Chubbies has changed hands several times in the past few years. It did not used to be as much of a problem as hit has been for the past 1-2 years.

Upper Fells Point is nowhere close to Georgetown. Working class folk and colorful characters are welcome. It's the open drug use, prostitution and blatant disrespect of neighbors that's the problem.

Chubbies, in its current iteration, is a big problem.

Cham said...

Colorful characters are incubated in homeless shelters and titty bars, not upscale restaurants and half-million dollar homes.

The state of Maryland prints this travel map of the state's scenic byways. A year ago or so, the people that print the map removed several of the scenic byways from the map. You see, the route that goes up to Bel Air and the route to Gettysburg are no longer scenic. They once were scenic but now are peppered with McMansions and Big Box retailers. The people who lived along the former scenic byways were very angry, but they had to admit that what was once charming was no longer. That is the way it is with Fells Point.

Anonymous said...

Cham:

Your support for Chubbies is interesting given your comment on another post:

"That way the loud obnoxious alcoholics can settle into their favorite bar permanently and that way they will not be a bother to any neighborhood."

You have a problem with drunks bothering a neighborhood, but strip club that attracts thugs, drug dealers and prostitutes from the Perkins Homes is okay?

This doesn't have anything to do with gentrification. It's about criminals and lowlifes who harass the hell out of high school girls.

If it were just a strip bar, but wouldn't get this much attention. It's a public nuisance and a danger to the neighborhood.

Bookhound said...

I agree. that was always the quietest strip club in the city. the yuppies just want it gone so they can cash in on their expensive real estate "investments." if you can push a business out just because you dont think it fits in with your ideas, that's just not right and it's not what this country was founded on

Bookhound said...

if you want to make this new hip urban environment, then you're wiping clean what took decades to build in order to replace it with starbucks and overpriced spas, and erasing the charm from our city. that's why people are standing up for a strip club

Maurice Bradbury said...

How about that Remington Wal-Mart?

Maurice Bradbury said...

Chubbies girls can get jobs as greeters.

Cham said...

How do you know the thugs, drug dealers and prostitutes that patronize Chubbies are from Perkins Homes? Did anyone perform a poll?

Cham said...

You know, MJB, sometimes in life we are treated to the perfect confluence of events. For example, I learned yesterday that Bindy Irwin will be staring in Free Willy 4. I didn't think the news could get any better.

But then I learned this morning about the plans for a Hampden Walmart. Let's say that again: "Hampden Walmart".

You got your East Side, you got your West Side and then you have Hampden. And these very exciting neighborhoods are desperate for a store with 24/7 rock bottom prices. Couple that with a very large well-lit parking lot, and, well, you might as well make some popcorn, grab a Slurpee and get out there to wait for the action to begin.

Maurice Bradbury said...

It's NOT Hampden, it's "lower Remington"-- 25th street, near the Rendez-Vous. Aren't there are at least 5 Wal-Marts within 10 miles of there?
Ah here you go. Meister commands your acceptance.

Cham said...

Meister can call it anything he wants, I'm calling it Hampden. This Walmart is going to be extra special due to its location.

Maurice Bradbury said...

..in Remington.

Maurice Bradbury said...

..in Remington.

Anonymous said...

I love how people who buy boarded up shells, turn them into liveable homes for themselves, who pay insanely high taxes now because of it, who want drug dealing thugs and dirty places like this out of the neighborhood, and want the feeling of at least some safety are now called yuppies who want Georgetown and to cash in on our investments. I live directly behind Chubbies, I've had my wife harrassed walking by Chubbies. She's also been mugged at gunpoint on Bank St by kids leaving Chubbies. Why would I want this in my neighborhood? I rented in Canton before buying my house. I chose this area because of all the work that was going into it in cleaning it up, why wouldn't I want that to continue? Why are people OK with the Inn being shut down but want drug dealing thugs and a strip club around? The place up the street across from the BK needs to go too. Those low lifes actually leave their needles on the ground! This area is going in the right direction and it's not all yuppies looking to make a quick buck (especially now with the market). I moved to the city for all the reasons you people have stated. Last time I checked, drug dealing, harrassing, the thug life and prostitution isn't what made/makes Fells Point charming. I don't want starbucks and spas, I just want these two places gone for my safety.

ppatin said...

Anon:

Your experience with living near that club was different than mine. Having some people standing around outside actually made me feel a little bit safer, since they never cause me any trouble and that block of Eastern Avenue could be rather dark at night. The real problem for Fells Point isn't any particular business, it's over to the West of Broadway. Unfortunately the Perkins Homes are there to stay, despite all the shit that oozes out of them. I suppose I should at least be glad that the high rise projects are gone.

Cham said...

We learned during the Bush administration that laws and the constitution gets trumped by "safety". So if we simply convert what we want for ourselves to a personal safety issue we can trample anyone and anything.