A new swingers club plans to open in June in the old
Fernando’s Hideaway building on SW 1st. The club may or may not have
porn star Ron Jeremy‘s name attached. Club owner Paul Smith, who
used to be a part owner of the Ace of Hearts swingers club in Southeast
Portland, leased the property from Old Town landlord John Beardsley in
February.
“It’s going to be called Club Sesso,” says Smith. “We’ve been in
this business a long time, this is a new location.” The average
customer, Smith says, is 35, above average income, married, with above
average education. Smith estimates there are 35,000 such people who
engage in swinging within a 50-mile radius of Portland. The club will
be members only, and private, with no sign outside advertising its
nature.
“People seek us out,” says Smith, adding that the club is a “good
neighbor, with no problems with drugs, fights, or prostitution.
I’d challenge any other club owner to say that,” he says. MATT
DAVIS
***
The Portland theater community was embroiled in a special kind of
drama this week when the city’s flagship theater company, Portland
Center Stage (PCS), made a surprise round of staff cuts.
Among the five staff members that were given the ax: Artistic/Literary
Assistant Megan Ward, and Literary Director Mead Hunter, who chalked up
his dismissal to “a series of disastrous budgeting
miscalculations paired with the moribund global economy.”
PCS is still struggling to raise $9 million to pay for its Pearl
District Armory digs. STEPHEN MARC BEAUDOIN
***
US Senator Jeff Merkley wants your money. After spending
millions to defeat Republican incumbent Gordon Smith last fall, Merkley
now has to get back on the fundraising kick to pay off $514,000 in
campaign debt. In a press release sent out on Friday, March 27, Merkley
blamed the debt on having to fight “attack ads that my opponent and
right-wing outside groups ran against me.”
“Debt is common for statewide campaigns,” says Merkley’s
deputy communications director, Marc Siegel, who is not officially
affiliated with the campaign. “Senator Merkley has been working off the
debt and his campaign will report a few hundred thousand less than
[$500,000] soon,” Siegel says. SARAH MIRK