MONTREAL – If asked to name the lobby groups wielding power at city hall, strippers, transvestites and fetishists would probably not figure high on the list.
But a grassroots movement to save a St. Laurent Boulevard strip club and showroom received a boost from Montreal’s public-consultation office yesterday. After months of study and public hearings, the municipal body is recommending that a planned redevelopment of what was once a bustling red-light district retain some traces of its seedy past.
The section of St. Laurent, known as the lower Main, has been deteriorating for years, and most storefronts are now boarded up. The Cafe Cleopatra is one of the few holdouts, with strippers performing throughout the day and an upstairs showroom that hosts drag-queen shows and fetish nights.
A proposed $167-million development, scheduled to begin construction next January, would have preserved building facades dating back to the 1890s, but evicted Cafe Cleopatra’s performers to make way for shops and a 12-storey office tower. After listening to 300 people during publi …

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