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Northeast's Portland's Cully neighborhood has gotten rid of its most notorious landmark—a sexual shopping plaza called The Sugar Shack.
The cost? Making the strip club's federally indicted owners $2.3 million richer.
WW reported last year that neighborhood groups were raising funds to buy the site.
In May, federal prosecutors charged Lawrence Gary Owen with engaging in interstate commerce for illegal purposes: He allegedly operated ATMs to promote prostitution at the Sugar Shack and three other area strip clubs.
WW reported in this morning's Murmurs that neighborhood coalition Living Cully bought the Sugar Shack site from members of Owen's family for $2.3 million in June after receiving contributions from the Portland Development Commission and Business Oregon.
"After 20 years of suffering through this, the community decided that they would act," says Living Cully organizer Tony DeFalco. "If the community didn't do that, the property would probably still be acting as a strip club."
Living Cully is still trying to decide what to do with the site. They're considering a small-business incubator and a commercial kitchen.
Neighborhood groups will hold a clean-up day at the site July 15.
WWeek 2015