Today’s Gazette assesses the impact of Capital Video’s Amazing.net porn shop in Northampton. This shop, at 135 King Street, originally planned to contain 20 viewing booths.
Year later, porn store brings scant change to neighborhood
[Douglas A.] Kohl [a co-owner of commercial property at 139 King St.] has been trying to lease the former furniture store for more than a year without success. Being located in the shadow of a porn store doesn’t help, he said.
“It’s hard to tie one to the other, but it certainly doesn’t make our life any easier,” said Kohl, who lives nearby on Summer Street. “It’s certainly a factor in people’s considerations around leasing. … If we wanted to sell it, it would be impacted…”
The city’s adult-use zoning ordinances “were effective, are doing what they are supposed to be doing and they’re not overreaching at all,” said [NoPornNorthampton’s Adam] Cohen, in reference to those who argued that they infringed on the First Amendment.
“The ‘slippery slope’ panic that some of our opponents were leaning on has not manifested itself at all,” he said.
We’re glad that Northampton has apparently succeeded in heading off secondary effects such as those seen in Springfield, MA or Kittery, ME (see below). Yet even the tamest Amazing.net store still merits blame for the toxic media it injects into our culture. For example:
Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Relationships (explicit)
Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Privacy and Consent (explicit)
Amazing.net: Making Nazis Sexy (explicit)
Now on Sale at Amazing.net: The Swirlies (explicit)
Now on Sale at Capital Video: Watch Women Eat Their Own Poop
(explicit)Movies that promote infidelity, despair, call women “sluts” and “whores”
Movies that feature “Bubble Gum Virgins”
Zoning can’t protect individuals from watching porn, nor should it. That’s a decision you need to make for yourself. Make it an informed one.
See also:
TalkBackNorthampton: “Final Vote on Moslem Zoning Thursday!” (10/30/06)
[TalkBackNorthampton opposed NoPornNorthampton’s positions]
From the Mrs. Potterville Gazette, October 30, 2011, by A.C.
The City Council will take a second vote this coming Thursday on the proposal to zone Islamic establishments 500 feet from any non-Islamic church/house of worship, day care center, park, playground, school, residence, or other Islamic establishment. Islamic establishments with display and Islamic activity areas under 1,000 square feet would be exempt from the proposal. The first vote was 6 to 3 in favor of the proposal…
Readers may recall that before becoming Allah and The Prophet, Adam and Peter formerly operated a small porn and poetry shop at the same location and sublet the balance of the premises to a drug store, Dolly’s, but nonetheless ran afoul of Mrs. Potterville’s adult establishment zoning regulations…
Springfield Republican: “Springfield to continue fight against adult viewing booths” (10/13/08)
We applaud Springfield officials for not giving up on Apremont
Triangle. The Republican reports today that the city is still
interested in closing the viewing booths at the Amazing.net porn shop
there. The booths are associated with health risks, economic blight,
harassment of residents, and prostitution around the store.
Springfield to continue fight against adult viewing booths despite 2 recent court losses
The business Amazing.net, at 486 Bridge St., had its entertainment
license revoked last November, needed for the booths, but won a
preliminary injunction in Superior Court in August, allowing the booths
to reopen at least temporarily…City Solicitor Edward M. Pikula was undeterred Friday, saying he will
file a motion in Superior Court this week, asking the court “to render
a final judgment,” rather than keep the preliminary injunction in place.“I think the neighborhood is rightly concerned that the location is a
source of nuisance activities and potentially a threat to public health
and safety,” Pikula said.
Thomas Lesser of Northampton, attorney for Capital Video, claims that
the city could save on legal fees if it stopped opposing Capital Video
in court. He neglects to mention the years-long economic harm
Capital Video has visited on the Apremont Triangle neighborhood, nor
the fact that Capital Video could minimize many of the harms attending
its viewing booth stores if it didn’t locate them near residences.
Furthermore, we recall claims made by another Capital Video attorney,
Michael Pill, that Northampton would expose itself to expensive legal action
if it passed certain adult-use zoning ordinances in 2006. The
ordinances were passed anyway, and the threatened legal action never
came.
Lesser claims, “The business has always been agreeable to placing
conditions on the license.” However, considering Capital Video’s attitude and national track record, it is unreasonable to trust them to adhere to these conditions for any length of time. As its own patrons say, “theres more money going in the machines with lights off and holes in the walls.”
Full Text of Springfield’s Decision to Deny Capital Video’s 2008 Viewing Booth Entertainment License
[Mayor Charles Ryan:] …I found that issuance of the 2006 and 2007 licenses lead to the
creation of a nuisance and endangered the public health, safety or
order by increasing the incidence of disruptive conduct in the area in
which the Capital Video premises (hereinafter “Premises”) are located…
As
evidenced by the testimony and exhibits presented at the revocation
hearing, (copies of which were introduced in the January 3, 2008
hearing as Exhibits 15 and 16) the increase in the incidence of
disruptive conduct in the area in which the premises are located, based
on the testimony and reports of the police officers as well as the
testimony and reports of a neighborhood resident, indicated that the
sale of drugs, prostitution in the area around the store, together with
offensive, lewd activities occurring in the various “viewing booths”,
as well as patrons being assaulted while using the booths, created a
nuisance and has caused a hindrance or obstruction in the exercise of
the rights which are common to every person in the community, for
example to safely walk the sidewalks of their own neighborhood, or to
patronize the store selling adult oriented material without being
assaulted…
The applicant has flagrantly and outrageously violated the laws of this
Commonwealth which prohibit unlicensed entertainment by continuing to
operate the unlicensed booths despite the revocation on November 16,
2007 of the 2007 licenses.
Full Text of Springfield’s Decision to Revoke Capital Video’s [2007] Viewing Booth Entertainment License
[Testimony of Ms. Erica Walch, immediate past president of the
Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association:] “…our AQCA office is directly
across the street from the store, and I am able to watch the goings on
when I am at the office. Men and women who live in our neighborhood …
are frequently approached by men who slow down their cars and ask, ‘Are
you working?’
Viewing Booths and HIV: An Open Letter to Thomas Lesser of Northampton, Attorney for Capital Video
Gazette: “Porn store’s viewing booths raise stink in Springfield”
Providence Journal Archives: Kenneth Guarino’s Mob Ties, Criminal Past, Global Empire
In
October [2006], Capital Video’s local attorney Michael Pill claimed to
Northampton’s City Council that “The company will not tolerate any
illegal conduct in or around its place of business.” (PDF) Three months later, the Springfield police commissioner called for a License Commission hearing to consider counts of drug sales and lewd activity around the Capital Video shop there.
What Kittery, Maine Found at the Porn Shop (emphasis added)
Police
Chief Strong came forward and said everyone was aware that this
establishment had been a bone of contention for a long time. Although
they had other regulations toward that establishment, it had come to
his attention that there were either illegal activities going on or
activities that were detrimental to the health and welfare of patrons
and the general public…
Chief Strong said Fernald Road residents had complained about
finding offensive trash on
the road and the Department did their own surveillance, finding such
items as empty pill bottles, lubricants, leather straps, movies, and
used condoms within 100 yards of the rear of the establishment on
Fernald Road.
The Chief said they made the decision to send people in under cover and
on two occasions, he sent two plain clothes detectives into
Amazing.Net, arming them with special glasses and a portable
ultraviolet light, which when shined on an area would illuminate body
fluids. On January 30, two detectives went inside dressed in plain
clothes and equipped with the ultraviolet light, as well as collection
material. They entered booths, closed the doors, turned on the
ultraviolet light and observed what appeared to be tremendous amounts
of body fluids on all three walls and on the floor. The next night,
the detectives followed the same procedure. Samples were sent to the
Main Street Lab and on February 13, 2006, he received the results
confirming that all swabbings taken in the four booths contained semen.
The Chief said their informant told them that on numerous occasions he
had tried to clean but had not been given any information on how to
wash the areas properly. Police Chief Strong said he believed the
collection of material they made, along with the lab results, showed
beyond a reasonable doubt that there were body fluids being exchanged
or deposited that other people were exposed to…
WMass Librarians: No Sign of Censorship Following Adult-Use Zoning
Some of our opponents have argued
that significant censorship is likely to follow if adult-use zoning
regulations are passed in Northampton. Librarians in Western
Massachusetts say this has not been their experience.