Last month, we wrote about the battle brewing between downtown nightspot Lust and its wealthy landlords. It seems they want to boot the business — and its mostly black clientele — from the West Sixth Street home [“The Deadly Sin,” November 17, 2010].
Central to the debate are the landlords’ claims that the crowd at Lust causes continuous problems — concerns summarized in a signed letter left on the club’s door last summer. It complained that Lust had racked up numerous police calls in the preceding weeks due to “altercations and other inappropriate activity,” claims that Lust owner Joe Carey called BS.
Scene’s records request to the Cleveland Police went unanswered until after press time for the original story. But now it can be told that the BS has been confirmed: In the month preceding the landlords’ letter, police showed up twice at Lust. Were they responses to a brutal stabbing or fights outside the club? Not exactly: One was for an inadvertently tripped alarm and the other because someone stole Lust’s copper air-conditioner line. — Kyle Swenson
