| How many of you have ever been to Times | | | | city passed an ordinance in 2001 to close the |
| Square in New York? Not for Dick Clark and the | | | | loophole posed by the "adult business" description. |
| whole New Year's Eve thing, nor for the Disney | | | | And an appellate court in New York state recently |
| scene. I'm talking about for the porn shops, peep | | | | (earlier this month) upheld the new definition of |
| show booths, and what have you. If you haven't, | | | | what an adult-themed enterprise was. You'll find |
| you might want to go now before just about all | | | | the new definition at along with more of the |
| of them disappear. | | | | story. The bottom line is, unless this ruling of the |
| In 1995, New York City passed a zoning law that | | | | appellate court is overturned, a lot of sex shops |
| restricted adult businesses to commercial and | | | | will suddenly be found to be in contempt of the |
| manufacturing districts - in essence, non-residential | | | | zoning law. |
| zones. Even within the commercial and | | | | I have a somewhat tongue-in-cheek question: In a |
| manufacturing districts, there were statutes for | | | | city of over eight million within an approximate |
| the placement of such adult businesses. For | | | | 300 sq. mi. area, what isn't a residential |
| example, they couldn't exist within 500 feet of a | | | | neighborhood? Granted, I'm not the first person |
| church, nor within 500 of a school, nor within 500 | | | | to ever hold this view. |
| feet of each other. It seems, though, that many | | | | But (somewhat) seriously, I'd always considered |
| enterprises in certain areas such as Times Square | | | | Times Square one of the great porn meccas in |
| and Greenwich Village were able to escape the | | | | the world; possibly the greatest on the eastern |
| "adult business" moniker. A business would have | | | | seaboard. If you're a porn aficionado like I am, |
| to showcase at least a 40% inventory stock of | | | | and you live in the mid-Atlantic region on the east |
| adult material to be labeled as an adult enterprise. | | | | coast, you make your pilgrimage to New York. If |
| Therefore, a lot of businesses were able to skate | | | | you live on the left coast, you make your way to |
| by in largely residential neighborhoods by stocking | | | | The Valley. If you live in Europe, you call on the |
| 39% or less sexual material. Even if a sex shop | | | | Red Light District in Amsterdam. |
| derived the bulk of its revenue from sex tapes, | | | | Now, the porn shrine in the Square is no more. |
| peep show booths, etc., legally they were well | | | | (*with mock dramatic intensity, one fist raised to |
| within their rights to exist in those places. Well, the | | | | the sky*) Damn you, Mickey Mouse, damn you! |