Nude Dancing Club Opens Amid Protest : Neighborhoods: Opponents say the Wilmington business is illegal and will attract undesirables to an already troubled area.

Some folks in Wilmington don’t want Legs or the bare bodies that come along with it.

Legs, in this instance, is a liquor-free nightclub in an aging industrial neighborhood that offers naked female dancers as entertainment for voyeuristic patrons as they imbibe soft drinks.

But for Gertrude Schwab, one of dozens of protesters who turned out for the club’s “gala opening” Thursday, Legs, which plans to have at least 15 naked women on hand during business hours, is an amoral nuisance.

“It’s just going to attract all of the sleazeballs to the neighborhood,” said Schwab, a longtime Wilmington resident who carried a sign saying, “Keep Your Legs Closed.”

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Schwab and other protesters contend that the club has no place in the largely working-class community where homeowners have fought for years to preserve their quiet residential streets against encroaching heavy industry and urban decay.

The protesters--and Los Angeles city officials--maintain that, more than just another example of unwanted blight, the club is an illegal business.

As proof, they point to the business’s failure to win approval from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and its lack of an occupancy permit from the Building and Safety Department.

What’s more, protesters say, the club will draw drugs, prostitution and other crime to an already troubled neighborhood.

“That’s going to chase people out of the community,” said resident Anita Melgoza.

Club operators, however, contend that their business is perfectly legal and are gearing up for a battle against any attempt to shut it down, saying such a move would violate the club owners’ 1st Amendment right to free expression.

“They don’t like us because we’re adult entertainment, but that’s not enough to shut us down,” said Bernard Fears, an investor in the corporation that runs the club.

Club operators shrug off the missing occupancy permit as irrelevant since the facility reportedly has a permit that is still valid from its former use as a meeting hall for unionized shipbuilders.

The rejection by the CRA is also of little concern to the operators because they say they have strong legal grounds to fight the decision.

The club, at 340 Broad Ave., sits on the western edge of a 232-acre industrial park that has been under CRA supervision since 1972. Because of the club’s location, its operators were required to apply to the Board of CRA Commissioners for an operating permit. The panel, however, denied the application in August, saying the club is incompatible with the park’s mission.

The project area, the board ruled, is solely for “industrial uses or uses which provide services or facilities” to people in the zone.

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Club operators, however, hope to use that same clause to defend their existence. They say the club is a valuable recreation outlet for the working men in the area’s docks and warehouses. “The guys in the area love us,” Fears said. “We render a great service.”

They also contend that the CRA has allowed at least four other non-industrial businesses to open in the area since the industrial park was created.

Ultimately, Fears said, the campaign against his business is not rooted in legality but in the morality of a “vocal minority.”

Meanwhile, Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr., who represents Wilmington, has vowed to seek legal means to keep the club from operating. He dispatched a building inspector to the club Thursday to take note of any possible violations of city ordinances.

The inspector could not be reached for comment, but one club manager said the city official left after issuing a verbal warning that the naked dancers cover up.

Club operators have dismissed Svorinich’s participation in the uproar over Legs as political grandstanding. Barry Glickman, Svorinich’s chief of staff, countered: “He’s doing his job. They call it politics. I call it duty.”