Club 120 in Toronto is closing--what next? What about sex clubs generally?

[garsento]

@Read1 reported over in that Club 120, the Toronto club and restaurant combo at 120 Church Street not far from the Village that hosted--among other things, like jazz sessions--the Rough House and Fukdto sex parties, is closing permanently. Local weekly NOW Toronto looked at the issue, quoting extensively from co-owner Todd Klinck's explanation at Facebook of the impossible economics of it all., apparently very difficult even before COVID-19.

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The uncertainty of the restaurant and club business is the main reason it will be impossible for us to hold out. All indications point to a world where restaurants will at first re-open with limited capacity and the structure of the virus and how it spreads makes us wonder if the medical community will even permit crowded bars and nightclubs to open ever, before a vaccine.

 

We visitors had known, as the Toronto blogTO noted, that this location had been slated for condo development anyway. This catastrophe just accelerated the closure.

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Plans for a condo have loomed over the club at 120 Church Street for years. 

What once housed parties like Mitchel Raphael's debaucherous event Sodom, sex parties, some porno shoots, and countless drag shows, is slated to be demolished for a 45-storey residential building from property owners Madison Group. 

Earlier this year, an official submission for the property shows a design that will include 479 suites that will see the destruction of the building at the corner of Church and Richmond Streets.

While Club120 has been closed since mid-March, 120 Diner will continue offering take-out and delivery until the end of this month. 

 

FukdTO and Rough House have each announced that they are in the very early stages of looking for a new host for their event. One major problem with this is that I am not sure that there is a suitable space, at least not within walking distance of the Village. That part of Toronto has seen huge condo development, and real estate prices are ridiculously high. I am surprised that Club 120 lasted as long as it did. 

Where will these spaces be? Club 120's problems reflect wider issues, as Klinck wrote.

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[W]e are heartbroken to visualize a city where perhaps 50% and even up to 75% of all bars and clubs and restaurants will not survive. Take our struggle and multiply it by tens of thousands of other small businesses across the country and try not to weep.

The government has done some pretty amazing things in Canada in terms of getting support out quickly, especially to individuals. But the support for small businesses like ours has been mostly about optics and politics. The CECRA program (the rent relief program that suggested commercial landlords would reduce rent to 25% for 3 months) is not useful. Most landlords don’t want to apply to it for a variety of reasons. Small businesses can’t keep paying expenses while the powers that be try to find solutions. We are still proud Canadians, but so far, we have not seen a lot of viable help. Restaurants, bars, and clubs make up an important part of our cultural fabric. We are a huge part of the economy. And it’s not our fault that a pandemic appeared out of nowhere and shuttered our doors with no warning. Our industry, and other industries that rely on small or larger groups, have arguably been hit the hardest. And virtually no politician has expressed this view or gone to bat for us directly. Time will tell, but it looks grim.

 

The Church Street bar Pegasus is facing issues; the Glad Day Bookshop has had to resort to fundraising to stay afloat. With no affordable real estate in the Village, the Village's businesses might well go. With no other gay village in Toronto or nearby, not now, it could be a long time before we get a neighbourhood cluster of businesses that would include nightclubs and sex clubs. Certainly the kinds of spaces that are such excellent places for guys to meet and have sex will be hit hard.

This is not a crisis that is going to hit Toronto alone.  Every place is getting hit by COVID-19; every place is going to have an economic crash; every place is going to put sex clubs probably close to last on the list of businesses to revive, as well they should given how dangerous the virus is. What will happen to the networks of parties and clubs that we use? What can we do to keep them alive or get new ones going?

[ErosWired]

One thing is certain - Guys are going to get it one way or another.

Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,  from most to least crucial:

1. Physiological Needs - air, water, food, shelter, clothing, sleep, reproduction (yes, when a guy says, “I need it!” he’s not just horny)

2. Safety Needs - personal security, employment, resources, health, property

3. Love and Belonging - friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection 

4. Esteem - respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom

5. Self-Actualization - desire to be the most one can be

All these needs are vital to a human being, but the more basic ones trump those in the next tier. In this case, Maslow might argue that the need for sex (tier 1) would likely win out over an individual’s concern for his health (tier 2). Of course it does - one need only visit the Backrooms of this forum for the proof.

An individual’s concern for his health (tier 2) might also trump his needs for friendship, intimacy, sense of connection (all tier 3) and employment and resources (both tier 4) - but not indefinitely. Although all the needs are not equally crucial, they are all necessary for a fully realized person, and must be met in some order or another, often opportunistically.

The point is that sex clubs and such venues did not originate simply from the whim of some man with a bankroll and a particularly debauched mind - they arose to meet a combination of human needs that no virus is going to erase. Even now, this discussion isn’t so much about concern over an industry as it is about concern over how we’re all going to get our needs met.

 I suspect that gatherings will resume, but they may go “underground” for a time, pursued at first mostly by those accustomed to sexual risk-taking, even though the risk extends not just to them but to those around them, because sex will not be denied forever.

It may be that in some circles of society exclusive groups arise that segregate on the basis of a rapid on-site Covid test (if developed) where only individuals who test clean are granted admittance.

Assuming there actually is a vaccine a year from now (huge If) I feel sure that some new clubs will arise to replace at least some that fail, because the need must be met and nobody leaves cash lying on the ground.

What can we do to keep the present ones alive? I don’t know that, on a grand scale, there’s much we can do under the present circumstances. Sometimes you can’t stop a forest fire from taking out a big old tree.

When the fire’s out, however, there are always ashes to stimulate new growth, and if we encourage entrepreneurs to start or start anew, and most importantly, elect competent leadership to help us through the recovery, new things will spring up.

In the meantime, I think we’re all going to be relying on our apps a lot more 😑 and you can bet your sweet ass they’re going to monetize the hell out of our predicament. If you don’t believe me, review PornHub’s “generousness” in making its premium accounts free because we’re all stuck at home fapping. Great, huh? Except that it’s only free for a week and then they start charging you as normal until you cancel, and it was all a ploy just to get a captive audience to part with their money during a period of record unemployment. Fuck you, PH.

See what happens when nobody fucks ErosWired for two months? I start with a nice, reasoned post, and 13 paragraphs later I end up ranting.

God, do I need cock. (Tier1.)

[Spunkinmyarse]

I don’t know the club in question or Toronto very well, but to be honest, although COVID-19 might be the final straw, it sounds to me much more likely that it’s fallen victim of the kind of urban ‘gentrification’ we’ve become VERY familiar with here in London.  

It’s interesting, though: one could speculate that one unexpected side effect of this pandemic will be that this trend of ever-increasing rents and property prices could go into reverse in some of our larger cities, particularly where commercial property is concerned.  With so many people finding they can work from home, will we need so much office space?  And all those empty retail units, now that even more people are shopping online.  And add to that the empty bars, clubs and restaurants that won’t reopen.  Will people even want to live in cities if you strip away their main attractions: the concerts, the theatres, the bars, the restaurants?  Over the last few weeks, our largest cities have felt more like giant prisons than attractive places to live.

Maybe life in the suburbs/country is about to make a comeback, and with that, there will be plenty of derelict places in the city centres which gays will be able to colonize once more.  It’ll be like the 1970’s all over again!

[MuscleAss]

Will the condo tower be built? The financing is on hold for sure. Who will replace current commercial tenants? Landlords who won’t make a deal may end  up with empty space and no rent  

mm

[Guest CuriousDallas]

I imagine the same will be true for other gay neighborhoods too, like Cedar Springs in Dallas. Without an effective treatment or cure I cannot imagine the big clubs like S4, Roundup, JR’s, Woodies, and others opening back up. The restaurants and shops nearby were dependent of gay folks who were going to the clubs hitting a restaurant first, hitting the shops, and so one...they all fed business to each other. Take away one segment and the rest probably collapse. It’s not like anyone is going to open a new business any time soon so my hunch is the businesses will close and be vacant and the area will just decay with only the Kroger and a handful of businesses like liquor stores, drug stores, and such staying around. There already was a problem with the homeless and with regular folks avoiding the area it’ll really go downhill. I’m starting to think the life we knew is dead and gone.

[BlackDude]

I can still see some of the smaller bookstores staying open because like someone said men will need what they need. But I think the big clubs are done with. Maybe this will be in cruising back? Honestly the Stewmworks down here In Berkeley had turned into nothing but a bunch of snobby Twinks and gossipy lookee loos. As long as CumUnion continues I’m good