Episode 4 of Imperfect Paradise: Strippers Union includes updates on the first six months since Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the country in August 2023. This episode also explores a parallel project by some of the same dancers: the Stripper Co-op. Imperfect Paradise host, Antonia Cereijido and LAist Producer Emma Alabaster take you to a pop-up Stripper Co-op show and dive into the worker cooperative business model.
Latest Star Garden updates: The dancers at North Hollywood’s Star Garden Topless Dive Bar started their first picket outside their workplace in March of 2022. Two years later, the club is operating as a union strip club. But as dancers and management work on negotiating their first union contract, dancer Wicked (stage name) says the club “still feels like a battleground.”
While the dancers are waiting to see how things play out at Star Garden, some of them have another project they have been working on – one where they have more control – the Stripper Co-op.
Inside a pop-up Stripper Co-op show: Members of the Stripper Co-op share roles in putting on the show: booking and promotion, working the door, selling merch, emceeing, performing — even setting up their own pole.
And because dancers make their own rules, the performances often include more than pole dancing. Past shows have featured elements of burlesque, Irish step dance, conceptual performance art and fire spinning.
“I think in the co-op environment, there's a lot more freedom to express yourself,” says Lilith, a Star Garden and Stripper Co-op dancer. “It's up to your discretion, what kind of performance you wanna do, how weird you wanna get.”
Read on... for more on performers and to listen to the latest episode of the Imperfect Paradise episode.
Early in the pandemic when strip clubs closed and strippers were looking for other ways to make money, some L.A. dancers started virtual strip shows on Zoom. Unlike a traditional strip club, where there is a distinction between managers and dancers, at these shows, dancers are their own bosses and can set their own rules, including experimenting with a collective money-making model, in which all the performers pool their tips and split them equally.
“Historically in strip clubs, the managers have called all the shots – have been able to dictate what their dancers do with their bodies,” says dancer Lilith (stage name.) “It only makes sense that the power is in the hands of the sex workers who are performing and who are providing the service, and that we all get a fair cut of the pie.”
A worker cooperative is a business that is owned by people who also work there and is democratically-run: one person, one vote.
Today, the Stripper Co-op continues with a mix of dancers from Star Garden and other clubs as hybrid virtual and in-person pop-up shows at different venues in L.A. They are also working with the L.A. Co-op Lab to put together an operating agreement and business plan, in hopes of opening a brick-and-mortar stripper-owned-and-operated club.
There is precedent for this – the Lusty Lady was a peep show in San Francisco that unionized in the 90s, became a worker-owned cooperative in 2003, and closed in 2013.
Inside a pop-up Stripper Co-op show
Members of the Stripper Co-op share roles in putting on the show: booking and promotion, working the door, selling merch, emceeing, performing — even setting up their own pole.
And because dancers make their own rules, the performances often include more than pole dancing. Past shows have featured elements of burlesque, Irish step dance, conceptual performance art and fire spinning.
“I think in the co-op environment, there's a lot more freedom to express yourself,” says Lilith, a Star Garden and Stripper Co-op dancer. “It's up to your discretion, what kind of performance you wanna do, how weird you wanna get”
The organizers also say they intentionally book a diverse lineup — dancers of different genders, races and body sizes.
"Our utopian idea of a strip club is diverse and exciting and not homogenous, featuring so many different identities,” says Reagan (stage name,) one of the dancers who started the Stripper Co-op. “The strip club industry in L.A. — it feels tired. It feels exploitative, beyond reason. I want the co-op to be the antidote.”
What would your ideal strip club look like?
We asked some of the dancers at their December 2023 “Tis the Season for Pleasin’” Stripper Co-op show what an ideal strip club would look like.
Answers have been edited for clarity. We are using dancers’ stage names throughout.
Reagan, a member of the Stripper Co-op.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Reagan, a dancer at Star Graden who was part of unionization, poses for a portrait behind the scenes at a Stripper Co-op show.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Reagan:
“My ideal club is definitely along the lines of the environment that we’ve been fostering at the Stripper Co-op: this idea we’ve been incubating that a strip club can be safe and empowering and sexy and also inclusive to a wide variety of identities and looks and backgrounds and personalities.
“The mantra wouldn’t be the customer is always right; the mantra would be the community is always right and we would make decisions as a collective.
“There would definitely be money raining down at all times. Also other fun atmospheric things like bubbles, I love bubbles. There would also be cool non-toxic smoke machines, giving it a cinematic atmospheric feel.
Another fun thing I imagine is more theatrics. That's definitely my passion, sexy, weird performance art.”
Part 4: Half a year after Star Garden reopens as a union club, the dancers are still negotiating a contract. LAist producer Emma Alabaster brings you the latest. Plus, some of the dancers have set their sights on a different dream: a worker-owned cooperative strip club.
Here are some resources that informed our reporting:
Part 4: Half a year after Star Garden reopens as a union club, the dancers are still negotiating a contract. LAist producer Emma Alabaster brings you the latest. Plus, some of the dancers have set their sights on a different dream: a worker-owned cooperative strip club.
Here are some resources that informed our reporting:
Asami was part of Strippers United for a year, and came back to perform at the Stripper Co-op show in December.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Asami's water bearer tattoo.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Asami:
“It's not the nature of sex work itself that is inherently degrading, but it's a lot of the structural inequities larger than the club.
“A lot of the things that happen at the club are actually just a part of reimagining an entire world where those inequities don't even exist. The club is more like a symbol of the patriarchy or white supremacy in the way that I'm treated as a Filipino dancer.
“I think the way men or anybody really talks about strippers is either as agency-less victims that have to be saved or that we're sluts or whores.
“I think if we could break down that perception, I think that would be the perfect club for me, where I could see myself being able to go to a shift and feel empowered or to have my own femininity and my sexuality to be on my own terms.”
Jozey Moon, photographed backstage at a Stripper Co-op show, is the Vice President of Strippers United, an organization that advocates for stripper's rights.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Jozey Moon:
“If I could reimagine strip clubs, there would be clubs dedicated to all different genders and sexualities, and they wouldn't be catered towards cis men.
“They would be clubs that had dancers that showcase the diversity of people who are dedicated to erotic art and dance and expression, and in turn that would reflect in the diversity of the audience, the clients that come into that club, and they would exist to actually resist patriarchy, resist misogyny, and resist sexism and gender based discrimination.”
Sin Twisted has been dancing for 26 years.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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For Sin Twisted, performance is a form of therapy.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Sin Twisted:
“My ideal strip club or venue would be main stage-focus. I see curtains that are able to drop and open, so performers can actually have a stage set up. I think on the weekends, charging a little bit at the door is not unreasonable, and that money should be contributed to each performer that's working that night, as opposed to charging the performer's house fee.
“I believe in not punishing performers, especially for things like having to skip out for a physical injury or illness or even a mental health day. I've worked in clubs where they don't allow you to call out sick without it affecting your schedule for next week.
“I believe entertainers should be in their best mental capacity to entertain and be on stage.”
May, a Star Garden stripper who was part of the unionization efforts, poses for a portrait backstage at a Stripper Co-op show in December.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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May's pleasers backstage at a Stripper Co-op show in December.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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May:
“The dancers' cuts would be a lot higher because we're worker owners.
“All the positions in the club would also be sex workers: the person handling the money, the cashier person, the DJs, the bartenders, the floor managers, the VIP hosts. Maybe dancing is a little hard on their body now, so they want to get out of stripping, but they still want to be in the club environment.
“There would be really good security that is there to protect us and to make the environment feel really safe.”
Honey Baked, the treasurer for Strippers United, has been dancing for 12 years.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Honey Baked:
“My ideal club would be a place that is run by strippers, everything from the top down, because it's really important that people who actually know the ins and outs of the industry are involved. You can feel safe and not have to worry about being assaulted.”
Velveeta, a dancer at Star Garden and a member of the Stripper Co-op poses for a portrait.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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Velveeta:
“My vision for the Stripper Co-op Club is a super vibrant spot with dancers of all different shapes and sizes and backgrounds, amazing performances, and a really exciting club kind of environment on the weekends. But then, during the weekdays it would be a really chill place for our community to come, a real neighborhood community spot.”
Ace Exotic is a member of the Stripper Co-op and also runs Acro Strip Show which is inclusive of all body types and gender identities.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Ace Exotic backstage at the Stripper Co-op show in December.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Ace Exotic:
“My ideal strip club, what it looks like, what it feels like, is a little bit like what we're creating here [at the co-op show]. Where everyone's represented. It's all different body types, all different races, all different shapes, sizes, gender identities. You shouldn't have to dread going to work as a sex worker. You shouldn't have to dread management. It’s just being in a space where we're safe and allowed to express ourselves in an erotic way.”
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, where a massive post-fire rebuilding effort is underway.
Published April 1, 2026 4:44 PM
Fencing lines a sidewalk next to a home under construction.
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Erin Stone
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Topline:
As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Council member is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.
Who’s behind it: Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.
The details: The plan calls for returning the 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.
Read on … to learn whether economists think the proposed tax relief could make a difference.
As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.
The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.
The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”
Would it make much of a difference?
Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.
“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”
Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.
Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.
“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”
What’s next for the proposal?
The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.
The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.
The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September. Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
About the deal: The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate. Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.
What's next: Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects. Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS. If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.
Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.
Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.
The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.
Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.
"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.
Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.
"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."
Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.
"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.
Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.
Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.
Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.
"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."
If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.
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Logan Cattaneo, 6, poses for a photo with the Dodgers mascot during Dodgers Dreamteam PlayerFest at Dodgers Stadium in 2024.
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Michael Blackshire
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The Dodgers Foundation says it's expanding Dodgers Dreamteam, its program for underserved youth. The foundation says the program will be able to serve 17,000 kids this year, 2,000 more than last year.
Why it matters: Now in its 13th season, the program connects underserved youth with opportunities to play baseball and softball and provides participants with free uniforms and access to baseball equipment. It also offers training for coaches in positive youth development practices, as well as wraparound services for participant families like college workshops, career panels, literacy resources and scholarship opportunities.
How to sign up: For more information and to sign up, click here.
An aerial view of snow-capped trees after a winter snowstorm near Soda Springs on Feb. 20, 2026.
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Stephen Lam, San Francisco Chronicle
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via Getty Images
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Topline:
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season. It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
What happened? Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
Why it matters: Experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains. State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs. “I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.
It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.
On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.
“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”
Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.
“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”
‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’
In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.
“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”
Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.
“That means we can get more work done,” he said.
It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.
Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.
“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”
‘A haystack fire’
Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.
Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”
“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.
Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.
But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.
How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.
“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”
