Springfield Republican: "Man fatally shot inside strip bar"
The print edition of today's Springfield Republican reports:
See also:
Republican: "Springfield police arrest strip club patron for breaking vehicle windows" (5/29/08)
Today's Springfield Republican reports on a secondary-effects type incident that took place early today outside the Fifth Alarm strip club on Worthington Street. Secondary effects are the crime and blight known to attend many adult enterprises.
Valley Advocate Website Announces 2008's "Best" Adult Entertainment Club; Holsopple's Inside Report on Stripping (explicit language)
If you visit the Valley Advocate website today and click through to their "Best of 2008" page, you'll see it leads off with "Adult entertainment club", partly because this category starts with "A" and partly because the Advocate considers this to be just another leisure option, on par with "Art gallery" or "Charity event"...
Within the "Best of 2008" issue itself, the Advocate uncritically relays that the Mardi Gras strip club offers a "convergence of elegance and energy mixed with sophisticated and sensual decor."
Springfield Republican Reports on Strip Clubs and the Mafia (7/8/07)
"The individual stated that the owners of these businesses do not want to pay Bruno, but that Bruno was pressuring them to pay this money through intimidation of organized crime," the source reported. The affidavit identifies the alleged payers as the Mardis Gras on Taylor Street, Teddy B's strip club on Worthington Street, two other unnamed strip clubs and the Red Rose restaurant on Main Street...
"The presence of two subjects inside the Mardi Gras on weekend nights serves to represent the interests of (LCN) in New York..."
Springfield Republican: "Ware selectmen OK written refusal to deny permit to Robbie's Place for nude dancing" (12/27/08)
The selectmen have approved a document defining their board's opposition to a downtown bar's request for a 2009 entertainment permit including nude dancing...
The document says granting the permit "would adversely affect the public health, safety or order." It stated the requested entertainment cannot be held in a way that would protect employees, patrons and the public from disruptive conduct, criminal activity, or health, safety or fire hazards...
The document notes that the bar's neighborhood is densely populated and includes multifamily homes where elderly people and children live. It also cites complaints about the bar lodged by neighbors at the public hearing.
Activist Strategies: Indiana Feminists Block "Girls Gone Wild"; Berlin Resident Fights Strip Club Liquor License with Remonstrance Petition
...Berlin, CT newspaper The Berlin Citizen on January 25 named resident Kurt Kemmling their "Citizen of the Year" for his fight to stop the Infra Red Café, a topless bar, from getting back their liquor license.
...Ordinance 81-334 cites two Supreme Court decisions, New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca, 452 U.S. 714 (1981) (per curiam), and California v. LaRue, 409 U.S. 109 (1972), both of which upheld prohibitions on nude dancing in establishments that serve alcohol. See Bellanca, 452 U.S. at 718 (upholding statute where the legislature had found that “[c]ommon sense indicates that any form of nudity coupled with alcohol in a public place begets undesirable behavior”); LaRue, 409 U.S. at 118-19 (“The . . . conclusion . . . that certain sexual performances and the dispensation of liquor by the drink ought not to occur at premises that have licenses was not an irrational one.”)
...Langston testified that live nude and seminude entertainment businesses “promote and perpetuate urban decay” and that “adult businesses have impacted on crime in the area surrounding Daytona Beach.” Id. at 547. Smith, who as an assistant state attorney had prosecuted drug and prostitution offenses in Daytona Beach, concurred that “there were more drug and prostitution offenses in topless bars than in other bars.” Id. at 548.
...the First Amendment does not prevent a city from limiting the venues where dancers may communicate their erotic message...
State of Minnesota, Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group on the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses, Office of the Attorney General (June 6, 1989)
This is a seminal work which investigates the secondary effects of adult businesses from a number of different research perspectives. Not only is the effect on crime included, so is the effect on neighborhood disorganization and disorder, as are the effects on property values addressed. The New York study also concluded that business locations with adult-oriented businesses had a significant loss of sales tax collections (42%) as compared to control areas. Studies of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Los Angeles are cited. RICO and organized criminal elements of the industry are also discussed. It was found that dramatic increases in crime rates were directly associated with the introduction of adult-oriented businesses into any community studied. Evidence is articulated indicating that property crimes were forty to fifty percent higher, and sex-related crimes were found to be seventy to as much as 500 percent higher--depending upon the municipality. Other non-crime community issues are also discussed.
Seattle, WA, 1989 (PDF)
Seattle had eight such dance halls (termed "adult cabarets"), six established since 1987...
The increased number of cabarets resulted in citizen complaints, including phone calls, letters (from individuals and merchant associations) and several petitions with hundreds of signatures. Protests cited decreased property values; increased insurance rates; fears of burglary, vandalism, rape, assaults, drugs and prostitution; and overall neighborhood deterioration. The report noted that patrons of these cabarets most often are not residents of nearby neighborhoods. Without community identity, behavior is less inhibited. Increased police calls to a business, sirens and traffic hazards from police and emergency vehicles are not conducive to healthy business and residential environments.
Report to the Rome City Commission--Adult Entertainment, Police Department, City of Rome, Georgia, (March 6, 1995) (PDF)
This report includes crime data from the city of La Grange, Georgia... Located in that small suburb of Atlanta, is a three-year-old “adult nightclub.” In just one year (1994) that single adult-oriented nightclub generated 141 calls-for-service, with thirty-five of those calls being criminal in nature. Those crimes included such violent crimes as: eight criminal batteries and eight aggravated assaults (knives, baseball bats, and firearms with shots fired). The report also includes many of the other municipal studies articulated elsewhere in this digest.
NoPornNorthampton Reaches Out to Springfield Neighborhood with Advice on Adult Enterprises
Springfield police dispatch reports from December 1998 through April 2007 paint a picture of burglaries, panic alarms, ambulance calls and altercations in and around the Amazing.net store at Apremont Triangle.
Hampden Superior Court Lets Capital Video Reopen Viewing Booths in Springfield; A Proposed Solution
Capital Video's Springfield store is not actually in compliance with Springfield's current zoning regarding adult entertainment. It's too close to residences, as you can see by using Springfield's Geographic Information System (Amazing.net is located at 486B Bridge Street). Current zoning specifies:
...a 22-year-old man was shot in the head while sitting at the bar at the Mardi Gras strip club downtown...
Police said Colon [the victim] had been involved in a "verbal and physical altercation with several other subjects" in the Mardi Gras about 20 minutes prior to being killed...
[Sgt. John] Delaney said police records show police have been called to the Mardi Gras a total of 30 times during business hours since July 1 and another 14 times after-hours for alarm activations...
[link to related web bulletin]
See also:
Republican: "Springfield police arrest strip club patron for breaking vehicle windows" (5/29/08)
Today's Springfield Republican reports on a secondary-effects type incident that took place early today outside the Fifth Alarm strip club on Worthington Street. Secondary effects are the crime and blight known to attend many adult enterprises.
A 24-year-old Bloomfield street man, kicked out of a strip club for attempting to take a patron's money off the bar, went on to smash three vehicle windows in the parking lot with a tire iron, Springfield police said...Gazette: "Strip club ouster ends with carjacking" (9/25/07)
Valley Advocate Website Announces 2008's "Best" Adult Entertainment Club; Holsopple's Inside Report on Stripping (explicit language)
If you visit the Valley Advocate website today and click through to their "Best of 2008" page, you'll see it leads off with "Adult entertainment club", partly because this category starts with "A" and partly because the Advocate considers this to be just another leisure option, on par with "Art gallery" or "Charity event"...
Within the "Best of 2008" issue itself, the Advocate uncritically relays that the Mardi Gras strip club offers a "convergence of elegance and energy mixed with sophisticated and sensual decor."
Springfield Republican Reports on Strip Clubs and the Mafia (7/8/07)
"The individual stated that the owners of these businesses do not want to pay Bruno, but that Bruno was pressuring them to pay this money through intimidation of organized crime," the source reported. The affidavit identifies the alleged payers as the Mardis Gras on Taylor Street, Teddy B's strip club on Worthington Street, two other unnamed strip clubs and the Red Rose restaurant on Main Street...
"The presence of two subjects inside the Mardi Gras on weekend nights serves to represent the interests of (LCN) in New York..."
Springfield Republican: "Ware selectmen OK written refusal to deny permit to Robbie's Place for nude dancing" (12/27/08)
The selectmen have approved a document defining their board's opposition to a downtown bar's request for a 2009 entertainment permit including nude dancing...
The document says granting the permit "would adversely affect the public health, safety or order." It stated the requested entertainment cannot be held in a way that would protect employees, patrons and the public from disruptive conduct, criminal activity, or health, safety or fire hazards...
The document notes that the bar's neighborhood is densely populated and includes multifamily homes where elderly people and children live. It also cites complaints about the bar lodged by neighbors at the public hearing.
Activist Strategies: Indiana Feminists Block "Girls Gone Wild"; Berlin Resident Fights Strip Club Liquor License with Remonstrance Petition
...Berlin, CT newspaper The Berlin Citizen on January 25 named resident Kurt Kemmling their "Citizen of the Year" for his fight to stop the Infra Red Café, a topless bar, from getting back their liquor license.
The Infra Red Café on New Britain Avenue featured topless dancers and had been the site of numerous incidents of criminal activity, such as underage dancers, fights that included weapons, noise problems and numerous infractions of a lesser nature.US Appeals Court Upholds Daytona Zoning and Public Nudity Ordinances; No Grandfathering for Lollipop's Gentlemen's Club; Rebutting Daniel Linz (emphasis added)
...Ordinance 81-334 cites two Supreme Court decisions, New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca, 452 U.S. 714 (1981) (per curiam), and California v. LaRue, 409 U.S. 109 (1972), both of which upheld prohibitions on nude dancing in establishments that serve alcohol. See Bellanca, 452 U.S. at 718 (upholding statute where the legislature had found that “[c]ommon sense indicates that any form of nudity coupled with alcohol in a public place begets undesirable behavior”); LaRue, 409 U.S. at 118-19 (“The . . . conclusion . . . that certain sexual performances and the dispensation of liquor by the drink ought not to occur at premises that have licenses was not an irrational one.”)
...Langston testified that live nude and seminude entertainment businesses “promote and perpetuate urban decay” and that “adult businesses have impacted on crime in the area surrounding Daytona Beach.” Id. at 547. Smith, who as an assistant state attorney had prosecuted drug and prostitution offenses in Daytona Beach, concurred that “there were more drug and prostitution offenses in topless bars than in other bars.” Id. at 548.
...the First Amendment does not prevent a city from limiting the venues where dancers may communicate their erotic message...
State of Minnesota, Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group on the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses, Office of the Attorney General (June 6, 1989)
This is a seminal work which investigates the secondary effects of adult businesses from a number of different research perspectives. Not only is the effect on crime included, so is the effect on neighborhood disorganization and disorder, as are the effects on property values addressed. The New York study also concluded that business locations with adult-oriented businesses had a significant loss of sales tax collections (42%) as compared to control areas. Studies of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Los Angeles are cited. RICO and organized criminal elements of the industry are also discussed. It was found that dramatic increases in crime rates were directly associated with the introduction of adult-oriented businesses into any community studied. Evidence is articulated indicating that property crimes were forty to fifty percent higher, and sex-related crimes were found to be seventy to as much as 500 percent higher--depending upon the municipality. Other non-crime community issues are also discussed.
Seattle, WA, 1989 (PDF)
Seattle had eight such dance halls (termed "adult cabarets"), six established since 1987...
The increased number of cabarets resulted in citizen complaints, including phone calls, letters (from individuals and merchant associations) and several petitions with hundreds of signatures. Protests cited decreased property values; increased insurance rates; fears of burglary, vandalism, rape, assaults, drugs and prostitution; and overall neighborhood deterioration. The report noted that patrons of these cabarets most often are not residents of nearby neighborhoods. Without community identity, behavior is less inhibited. Increased police calls to a business, sirens and traffic hazards from police and emergency vehicles are not conducive to healthy business and residential environments.
Report to the Rome City Commission--Adult Entertainment, Police Department, City of Rome, Georgia, (March 6, 1995) (PDF)
This report includes crime data from the city of La Grange, Georgia... Located in that small suburb of Atlanta, is a three-year-old “adult nightclub.” In just one year (1994) that single adult-oriented nightclub generated 141 calls-for-service, with thirty-five of those calls being criminal in nature. Those crimes included such violent crimes as: eight criminal batteries and eight aggravated assaults (knives, baseball bats, and firearms with shots fired). The report also includes many of the other municipal studies articulated elsewhere in this digest.
NoPornNorthampton Reaches Out to Springfield Neighborhood with Advice on Adult Enterprises
Springfield police dispatch reports from December 1998 through April 2007 paint a picture of burglaries, panic alarms, ambulance calls and altercations in and around the Amazing.net store at Apremont Triangle.
Hampden Superior Court Lets Capital Video Reopen Viewing Booths in Springfield; A Proposed Solution
Capital Video's Springfield store is not actually in compliance with Springfield's current zoning regarding adult entertainment. It's too close to residences, as you can see by using Springfield's Geographic Information System (Amazing.net is located at 486B Bridge Street). Current zoning specifies:
Capital Video is allowed to remain where it is because it's "grandfathered". The store preceded this ordinance. However, that doesn't have to be the end of the story. Massachusetts municipalities can enact an "amortization clause", meaning that all non-conforming adult uses have to come into compliance within a fixed period of time.Section F-1403. Permitted Districts: Adult oriented uses are permitted with a special permit from the City Council in Business A, Business B, and Business C and no other districts, subject to the following regulations:
- No lot occupied, or to be occupied, by an adult oriented use shall be located within a seven hundred (700) foot radius from a residential zoning district or a building containing residences.
- No lot occupied, or to be occupied, by an adult oriented use shall be within a seven hundred (700) foot radius from the grounds of a school, place of worship, public library or public park.
- No lot occupied, or to be occupied, by an adult oriented use shall be located within a seven hundred (700) foot radius of any other adult oriented use as defined.
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