If some people have a hard time applying New York City’s experience with adult businesses to Northampton, let’s consider a situation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a college town with a population of 22,000. Don Herzog, a professor at The University of Michigan Law School, writes on the blog Left2Right, on April 14, 2005… A block and a […]
Continue reading Local Businesses Say Porn Shop Hurts Downtown Ypsilanti
VIP (Very Intimate Pleasures) has giant sex shops in Hartford, New Haven/Orange and Manchester, and they’d like to expand. Sometimes they encounter resistance. Recently city officials and residents countered their plans for another Connecticut location (Berlin) with a new ordinance.What factors does VIP general manager Rick Lederman weigh when searching for new sites?“There’s a lot to […]
Today’s Gazette reports on David Russell’s recent offer to the Goldbergs. Mr. Russell owns Commercial & Investment Properties magazine serving Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Goldbergs own 135 King Street in Northampton, which they are proposing to lease to Capital Video Corp. to be a large porn shop.Mr. Russell pledges to “run a free full-color […]
Continue reading Gazette: “Sweetening the deal? Free ads for owner if porn shop goes away”
David Russell owns a major commercial real estate magazine that serves Western Massachusetts, and another that serves Connecticut. He is sending this letter to Barry and Annette Goldberg, owners of 135 King Street, offering to help them find a more suitable tenant for their property than a large porn shop…Dear Mr. & Mrs. Goldberg:October 5, […]
Continue reading Real Estate Publisher Offers to Help Goldbergs Find a More Suitable Tenant
NoPornNorthampton today submitted 201 new petition signatures to Mayor Higgins at the City Council meeting. The petition calls for Northampton to adopt adult-use zoning and viewing booth health regulations. This group of signatures was collected between August 18 and October 5. Northampton residents represent 167 of the signatures, with 34 more coming from non-residents.Since our petition […]
Continue reading NPN Submits More Petition Signatures to Mayor, Total Tops 1,100
On September 27, NoPornNorthampton mailed a version of its Open Letter to Barry G. and Annette E. Goldberg of Longmeadow, MA (PDF, explicit language) to virtually all the registered voters of Northampton and Longmeadow, over 29,000 people. The Goldbergs own property at 135 King Street in Northampton, and are in the process of leasing it […]
Continue reading NoPornNorthampton Mails Open Letter to Northampton and Longmeadow
By popular request, we provide here a summary of the present situation and suggest what people can do to preserve the health of the area around 135 King Street. In late June, Capital Video Corporation, a major pornographic video retailer and producer, signaled that it wanted to open a “big-box” adult video store at 135 King Street […]
Continue reading Recap: How Things Stand, and What You Can Do
With over 100 entries and 48,000 words of content on this blog to date, we’ve been hearing that it can be challenging to navigate. We’ve added new features to the left-hand sidebar of every page to help. These include:Our Welcome MessageGet an introduction to the issues. Find out about the most important materials and activities.Status […]
Continue reading New Sidebar Features Aid Navigation Through Blog
We’ve noticed several NoPornNorthampton yard signs have gone missing lately. Today we replaced our own sign for the second time. It would appear that in their zeal to defend free speech, some porn advocates have taken it upon themselves to censor us and those who agree with us.We are happy to replace any yard sign that […]
Continue reading Yard Sign Gone Missing? We’ll Replace It Free
The September 5 edition of USA Today reports on resistance to porn shops in small towns: “The multibillion-dollar sex industry has branched into the heartland, often along interstates,” and that trend is spurring local governments and community activists to mount aggressive efforts to shut down adult stores that sell pornography, The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., […]
Continue reading USA Today: “‘Porn wars’ flaring in the heartland”