This is a weekly program with commentary on current issues.

It is such a relief to read that the Flesh Club, once regarded as the lap of culture in San Bernardino, may turn over a new fig leaf and become a good, clean topless joint.

No more all-nude cabaret. No more private little booths. No more dancers touching customers (and their wallets).

Some diehards will lament that Hospitality Lane has become Hospitality Lame, but this change of heart (and underwear) is apparently a business decision. Without a liquor license, the Flesh Club would be a bag of bones. The surest route to a liquor license appears to be chaste entertainment in the topless genre, regulated by the state alkie police. But will this be enough to score a license?

The all-nude Flesh Club carries lots of baggage. (Empty baggage, of course, but baggage all the same.) It had, determined the judge who shut it down, become a magnet for unlawful sex and lewd conduct.

As a result, neighboring businesses may not be impressed with the Flesh Club’s intent to embrace semi-nudity and reinvent itself as a wholesome topless bar. California Baptist University’s Elaine Ahumada, dean of the nearby College of Professional Studies put it this way:

“If you want to build better economic foundations and help your community, you have to put in things that actually grow communities and that are sustainable.”

She’s right. The Flesh Club cannot hope to win over the community unless it can somehow become part of the community. It might be easier than you think.