Marie-France Ladine, principal of the San Francisco City Academy in the Tenderloin, got an unpleasant surprise last week. She learned that the faith-based school’s new neighbor is going to be the Power Exchange sex club.
“Our school is right next door,” she said. “We can hear the music through the wall.”
Actually, that music was from the previous tenant, the Pink Diamonds strip club, and if you were a world-class optimist, you might say that the Power Exchange is an improvement. Although the sex club has been controversial, it hasn’t had the outbreaks of violence that made Pink Diamonds notorious.
“One evening we had a youth group,” Ladine said. “And as soon as they got there, shots were fired. They were diving on the floor.”
Terrance Alan, who owns the building at 220 Jones, next to the Academy, says it isn’t his fault there’s a school next to a club that sponsors sex between consenting patrons.
“An adult business has been open at that location continuously since 1952,” Alan said. “The school moved in there with full knowledge that this was an adult business.”
True, but the Tenderloin neighbors complain that there was no community outreach, no advance warning, and no chance to speak out against a sex club opening next to a school that has students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
“There are 3,500 kids in this community,” said Ladine. “They’re poor, they’re scared, and a lot of them don’t speak English. They have no voice.”
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