One of Boston's two remaining strip clubs wants to move. Chinatown is leery.

"Some residents and community leaders view plopping a strip club onto a main thoroughfare as another burden the neighborhood would have to bear. They are concerned about noise and drunken buffoonery, they say, but they also worry the move could represent a backslide to a time they would rather forget. But for employees of the downtown nightlife staple, they don't see the fuss."

"It's not just Boston's famed puritanical streak pushing against Centerfolds' plan to move from LaGrange Street, an out-of-the-way side street downtown it has called home for 25 years, to 27-29 Stuart St., which is a main route that runs into the heart of Chinatown. "This is going to be another reminder of, 'Oh my God, how much can you put on Chinatown?'" said Karen Chen, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association."

Centerfolds Boston, one of two remaining downtown strip clubs, seeks to move from LaGrange Street to 27-29 Stuart Street, a main route into Chinatown. The proposal has raised alarms in Chinatown because memories of the Combat Zone’s sleaze, crime, and corruption remain raw. Some residents and community leaders view placing a strip club on a principal thoroughfare as another burden, citing fears of noise, drunken buffoonery, and a cultural backslide. Club employees say they come in peace and dismiss the fuss. Chinatown has a history of marginalization from highway projects and ongoing gentrification; demographics shifted from about 91 percent Chinese in 1990 to roughly 55 percent of nearly 5,000 residents now.

Read at Boston.com