A boom of new residents is transforming the North Loop, Minneapolis' X-rated district. By Sharyn Jackson. There's his year-old daughter, then cakes from his side business as a baker β a tiered baby-shower cake, all blue ribbons and bows, a red Elmo from "Sesame Street.
Lane spins a dial and Duran Duran's "Planet Earth" gets louder, although the club's shiny black stage is empty. Above his head, security cameras show a desolate front entrance, a vacant parking lot and the black-and-white feed from a VIP room where a dancer grinds atop a seated customer, the only one in the house.
To call it ironic that Lane beams with pride over his family and cutesy cake designs while DJing at one of Minneapolis' fully nude strip clubs would be an understatement. It's the story of the North Loop, the city's hottest neighborhood, which is undergoing a residential renaissance while living out its days as a zoned adult entertainment district.
What might seem to be a tense brew of high-paying condo dwellers and the city's titillation industry hasn't boiled over.
Instead, the two worlds seem content to share the same streets β so far. Lane, general manager at Choice for nine years, has worked in adult entertainment venues all over the country, and nowhere has he seen what he sees here: a residential neighborhood and an adult district not just butting up against each other but cohabitating.
