July 11: The Daily Hampshire Gazette spoke with NPN about its campaign to regulate porn shops and viewing booths. “‘This really seems to be as bad a location for this business as one could possible imagine,’ said [NPN co-founder Adam] Cohen in a phone interview Monday.”
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In response to the Gazette’s article, a reader calling themselves “some jerk in Japan” made this comment:
“Hey, tough luck, Adam and Jendi. I think you’re
probably going to lose your little battle, and if not, perhaps
Northampton isn’t the mecca of tolerance it claims to be. According to
your website, you don’t seek to ban porn shops, but rather to “relocate
them away from vulnerable populations”. What do you mean, it’s fine if
they put it in some ‘crummy immigrant neighborhood’, just not yours,
right? But since you and your friends find porn offensive, the crusade
is on. You could open a knitting supply store there, and somebody would
find it offensive, I guess….”
We made this response:
“NoPornNorthampton is not opposed to the porn shop because of the content inside, but because of the secondary effects the shop, with its viewing booths, is likely to have. Studies show these effects include increased crime, harrassment of neighbors, business failures and general blight. Police from Kittery, Maine found hazardous trash outside the Capital Video store there and highly unsanitary conditions inside its viewing booths. You’ll find details about all of this at NoPornNorthampton.org.
“We are unaware of any studies showing that knitting stores damage their
neighborhoods, that their patrons leave used condoms by the road, that
crime increases in their vicinity, or that pedestrians fear to shop
around them. This is not about moving porn shops from our neighborhood to someone else’s. This is about protecting all of Northampton’s residential
neighborhoods and places where you are likely to find children.”
As someone who goes to adult themed stores, I feel I should speak here. It isn’t just perverts and sexual deviants that frequent these places. I’m married, have kids and my husband and I like to have fun!
I would love not to have to travel to Connecticut every time I have an urge to see what’s new.
So you moved from New York to get away from places like that. My advice, move again. It’s people like you that make others feel ashamed for wanting to explore their sexuality, in whatever form they choose. Northampton is the place to do it, in case you haven’t noticed.
I would be proud to be one of the first customers to the new store. I only hope your narrow mindedness doesn’t spread too far and prevent it from opening.
We appreciate your desire to have fun. We hope you appreciate our desire not to see our neighborhood degenerate into a crime-ridden bunch of streets strewn with used condoms where people fear to tread. We feel that Northampton can strike a fair balance, just as many other towns in Massachusetts have done.
We are not proposing to ban adult theaters from Northampton. We are proposing that they be located a reasonable distance from homes, schools, etc. The evidence suggests that not all viewing booth patrons are as gentle on the neighborhood as you might be.
It is true that we are relative newcomers to Northampton. If the depth of local ties confers legitimacy, we note that Capital
Video Corporation is a chain headquartered in Cranston, Rhode Island. The profits from the King Street porn shop will flow south to owner
Kenneth Guarino,
while any ill effects will stay with us. Many Northampton residents more established than ourselves have expressed concern. I quote from the Gazette’s June 30 article, “Neighbors oppose porn shop”:
…”‘We’re furious,’ said Summer Street resident Mike Kirby, a former city councilor, who, with his wife, Lu Stone, have lived in their home for 25 years….’We’ve put all this effort into our house and garden, and now this happens,’ he said. ‘We’re shocked.'”…
“‘I have mixed feelings about it,’ said Joshua Miller, who has lived at 33 Summer St. for 21 years. ‘I’m for free speech, I’m for freedom of expression and I’m against censorship. What I’m worried about is how pornography exploits women.'”…
“Mary Ellen Walsh, who said she has owned her Summer Street home for 30 years admitted that she would ‘really rather it not’ be located near her home…. And she added, the establishment ‘has a right to exercise free speech, but I’m going to exercise mine, too.'”…
If the city acts on our petition, you may indeed have to drive an extra few miles to see what’s new. We regret the inconvenience.
Of course porn isn’t just for perverts — no one has said that it is. The issue is really just a simple commercial regulation issue — not a free speech issue. You have a right to smoke, drink and watch porn in your own house, but you do not have the right to unrestricted commerce in these areas.
We are not talking about a neighborhood erotic shop — we are talking about a car-dealership-sized porn emporium. We have a right to limit the size, location and content of any business within reason if it is in the public interest.
We have liquor licenses, limits on gambling (scratch offs and lotto are ok, but roulette is not), smoking bans, bans on child pornography, etc. This is no more controversal than any of those.
The question is not whether we have a right to regulate businesses (or course we do), the argument is just where exactly the line is. I say we can exclude a football field sized porn store run by a corporation with a bad history of enforcing reasonable behavior located in the middle of residential neighborhood — you may think otherwise, but that doesn’t make me narrow-minded.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. If Captain Video were instead to want to develop The Hill and Dale Mall and turn the entire lot into a Super Walmart sized porn colisseum, would that be ok? Are there any limits to size — what if they bought the entire Walmart/Big Y lot on North King and wanted to turn it into a porn theme park — is that ok? How about all of Florence?
I think that there’s a limit on size, and I think that that limit is less than a car dealership size.
How about location — can they open a porn shop right next the Bridge School? How about renting rooms in the High School? I think that there is a limit as to location — and I think that a dense residential neighborhood is not appropriate.
How about content — can they sell child pornography, offer access to prostitutes? I say there is a limit to content that private viewing booths are not appropriate.
My personal opinion is that a small porn shop without viewing booths would be ok even in downtown — I’d prefer they stay away from schools. I’d also prefer if they had a mix of erotica, couples oriented or soft porn along with hard core porn. I would love it if the store were well designed and pleasing to look at rather than a neony box store, but the proposed store is just too over the top.
Honestly i think all this opposition is alot of crap from uptight people who don’t get any at home. I think a porn shop would be good for Northampton and it’s uptight residents who have nothing better to do then whine about stupid stuff like this. Maybe if people got more at home then everyone would be alot happier. So loosen up all you uptight people and welcome the porn store with arms and legs wide open!!!!!!
“Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed”?!?!?!?!? isn’t that kind of cencorship and wrong on the part of the people who run this website?!?!? that’s just saying “oh we’ll print only the comments that don’t offend us”. this whole website and opposition is crap!!!! that’s just lame. you all need an enema!!!!
Boy, we’ve sure seen the ‘NPN has no life’ argument a lot. Moving on to more interesting subjects, in what way would a porn shop be good for Northampton? It’s been pretty easy for us to document how porn shops, and in particular adult theaters, can be bad for their surroundings.
We don’t pretend to be neutral on this subject, but we generally approve comments from all sides when we feel they add to the debate. Many blogs moderate their comments.
If you feel censored, by all means, please start your own blog.
Anon,
This website is privately owned — you are not guaranteed first amendment rights to have access to other people’s websites. Have you written letters like these to your local newspaper — when they refuse to print them, is that censorship?
I also don’t understand why you meet argument with personal attacks — your comments are extremely offensive and always published, so your gripes are baseless. Why not take the opportunity they are giving you to actually, you know, present a case for your side. So far, from what I can see, the opposition to NPN is only interested in insulting them. You can see that despite all of your attempts, that you cannot get them to follow suit and insult you back?
I hope that you go to city hall on the 20th and present the case for the porn store — it will be interesting to see if you can spout insults without anonymity. I am actually curious to hear what a reasoned argument for the store as proposed is? I have yet to hear one.
After reading your proposals, I find them to be too broad. No porn in Northampton is inaccurate. There have been several businesses operating for over ten years that sell porn. In this proposal you say that you do not want to close these businesses, but your proposals speak differently. If someone takes a conservative reading of your proposals both oh my and pride and joy would be in jeopardy of being closed. You yourself do not want this but the zealots that will come after you, and they will come, can use this to close both of these established businesses. Your real objections are with the peep boths. On this issue I agree especially in the proposed area, so your slogan should be Nopeepboothsnorthampton. You really need narrow your proposal and realize that you are putting peoples livelihoods in jeapordy.
I’m not sure why you say our proposals would jeopardize Oh My or Pride and Joy. They display no live or filmed adult entertainment. The location restrictions in our proposed zoning ordinance would not apply to them. They have no viewing booths, so the health regulations would not apply to them either. It is possible our zoning ordinance might have a modest effect on their signage. If they or other people feel any of our proposals are unnecessarily restrictive, we welcome suggestions on how to improve them.
NPN has visited Oh My and Pride and Joy to give them full information about our proposals. We welcome their input at any time. It is likely there will be several city council meetings before any new zoning rules are enacted. There will be ample time for members of the public to raise concerns and suggest changes.
As for our name, it’s not perfect but the best we could come up with on short notice.
Wow what a great debate. I love Northampton!Welcome, NPN, with your mature, articulate responses to criticism. I agree with some that a more diverse, higher consciousness adult shop could be appropriate in Northampton but since we have two shops already, then why don’t antiNPNers request some of that material at the other shops. Those shops would hopefully welcome more business from healthy, law-abiding people. Mainstream porn shops are depressing and draw mainstream porn viewers. Why have a McDonalds when you can have a nice local cafe? I think NPN provides very clear arguments and it isn’t a debate about free speech or new wave feminism. It seems to be about how low consciousness breeds more low consciouness. I don’t imagine any educated person in Noho wants that.