ARLINGTON, TX — Thank God for the self-sacrificing work of Arlington’s undercover vice squad and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Without their constant vigilance, the city might have been covered up by uncovered bosoms.Prior to the passage of stricter sexually oriented business rules in 2003 and the redoubling of efforts to enforce them, there were 14 gentlemen’s clubs and modeling studios in Arlington. Today there are seven, and several more of them may close.

The 2003 ordinance, which the city attorney has called “one of the most comprehensive sexually oriented business laws in the country,” increased the distance clubs must locate from certain other facilities, bars physical contact between patrons and performers, enforces a six-foot buffer zone, raised stages or glass enclosures between dancers and the audience, and mandates tips be placed in jars instead of… uh… other places.

Working tirelessly, during 2007 law-enforcement officials and the TABC issued an average of 13 citations each to the city’s six remaining cabarets. (The seventh SOB, a nude modeling studio, escaped 2007 with an unblemished record.) One now-closed club was cited 73 times; another that remains open was cited 50 times.

The fines stacked up quickly at a rate of $232 to $1,500 each.

According to its owner, it’s no coincidence Flashdancer was cited 50 times. The cabaret sued over the city’s refusal to grant it an SOB license at a planned new location. Flashdancer withdrew its lawsuit in December after plans to move fell through, and it will continue operating in its currently-permitted spot. However, that doesn’t make Flashdancer Inc. President Ryan Grant feel any better about the treatment his club received.

“This is a clear form of harassment,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

To that accusation, City Attorney Jay Doegey responded, “We call ’em as we see ’em.”

Two other cabarets that sued the city over operating licenses, including the one that received 73 citations, lost their lawsuits last year, and closed.