The Lamplighter Lounge Closes
Below are excerpts from the Star Tribune article, "St Paul's last strip club closes amid violence and fierce neighborhood opposition" by Shannon Prather on March 15, 2022. Photo (right) courtesy of the Pioneer Press.
The Lamplighter Lounge, St. Paul's last strip club, which faced fierce neighborhood opposition after hundreds of police calls in recent years and the killing of a young woman [Nia Black] in the parking lot, has closed.
The property management company that leases space to the club in a strip mall at the corner of Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue confirmed the closure on Tuesday via e-mail but did not comment further.
Neighbors in the North End noticed the club's signs had been taken down. City Council President Amy Brendmoen said "rigid new operational mandates" to be imposed on the bar by the city may have contributed to its closure.
"It is a big day in the neighborhood as we have just received confirmation that the Lamplighter is now permanently closed," said Rice-Larpenteur Alliance Executive Director Kim O'Brien, in an e-mail to her board. "I believe this to be a great outcome and opportunity for a new beginning for the neighborhood that has suffered so much from the violence, negativity and pain that the business brought with it."
O'Brien, who oversees the alliance — a group of local leaders and community members working to improve the intersection where St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood meet — said she didn't know "any single cause for the closure" but credits community members, Black's family and the help of local leaders including Brendmoen for turning up the pressure on the club owner.
After her daughter's death, [LaTonya] Black founded Mothers Against Community Gun Violence and led "peace walks" in the neighborhood and in Minneapolis. She repeatedly called city officials demanding action against the club saying she was appalled to learn that the man who killed her daughter had shot another person in that same parking lot years earlier.
"I just felt like Nia's spirit kept pushing me to make a difference," Black said. "I had to be my daughter's voice. Someone took her voice."
