Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Bookends Porn Shop in Enfield

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In the adult-use zoning ordinances approved by Northampton’s City Council on November 2, some of the justifications are to preserve Northampton’s pedestrian-friendly character:

The City has historically valued the preservation and expansion of dense, safe, pedestrian-scale neighborhoods and development that enable residents to walk to school, services, recreation, and other activities. More specifically, such pedestrian-scale neighborhoods that contain services within 500 feet of residences, schools and houses of worship are an important means to enable children to walk to such services safely and independently…

Because the large-scale adult establishments greater than 1,000 square feet have the tendency to create blank, inactive voids in the street fabric due to their size and façade treatments it is important to ensure that such businesses are not located within 500′ of such walkable neighborhoods that include churches, residences or schools.
NoPornNorthampton went down to Enfield, CT on November 4 to have a look at Bookends, a 6,000-square-foot porn shop that dates from the 1970s. This size is similar to the one Capital Video proposes for 135 King Street in Northampton. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon. On walking up and down the street for several minutes in each direction, few if any other pedestrians could be seen.

In front of Bookends itself, the sidewalk actually disappears for much of the frontage of the shop. Perhaps there hasn’t been much demand to connect the sidewalks on either side of Bookends.

Here are pictures of the front of Bookends looking north and looking south:



 

4 thoughts on “Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Bookends Porn Shop in Enfield”

  4. Adult business owners would find your arguments laughable. Most have little use for pedestrian traffic. They well know that their typical customer prefers to travel out of their neighborhood. That’s one of the features of 135 King Street to Capital Video, it’s less than a mile and half from I-91.

    Consider the evidence:

    People do not, as a rule, buy pornography in their own
    neighborhoods. As a result, pornography and sex-aid stores tend to be
    near mass transit, ideally as near as possible, so little time is spent
    walking to and fro. “This is not impulse buying,” said Carl Weisbrod,
    who for many years headed offices charged with the oversight and
    redevelopment of Times Square. “It’s people who come from wherever to
    make specific purchases.” As a result, he added, “there’s a desire in
    the industry to be in transit hubs.”

    From The New York Times, “NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: GREENWICH VILLAGE; The Forces That Fuel a Squall of a Block”, 6/20/04

    Austin, TX, 1986
    For trade area characteristics, three businesses (a
    bookstore, theater and topless bar) were observed on a weekend night to
    determine customer addresses…

    Of 81
    license plates traced for owner addresses, only three lived within one
    mile of the sexually oriented business; 44 percent were from outside
    Austin.

    Seattle, WA, 1989
    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.

    Adams County, CO, 1998
    The
    study concluded that there was a clearly demonstrated rise in crime and
    violence, and an increase in the attraction to transients to the area
    as a result of nude entertainment establishments. This caused a danger
    to residents and an undesirable model for youth and the community at
    large…

    An April 1988 study of six adult business locations in Adams County, revealed that 76% of patrons were transient.

    Environmental Research Group to the American Center for Law & Justice, 1996
    Surveys
    of businesses in Bothell, WA and Austin, TX revealed that less than
    three percent of vehicles parked in the lots were registered to an
    owner that resided a mile or less away.

    ERG concluded that the
    impact of sex-businesses for small towns is more intense than that of
    big towns. The business district of a small town is not as large and
    not capable of “dividing up” sections of town. A national survey of
    real estate appraisers and lenders revealed that the placement of a
    sexually oriented business is generally an indicator of the decline of
    a community–in a small town, the business district is impacted as a
    whole. Also, the target audience of a small town will not suffice for
    sex business and must draw business from a regional area. Sex
    businesses also set the tone of the pedestrian intent in the area.
    Interviews with non-sex business patrons and passersby indicated a
    likelihood that a person will be prospected for sex acts or be sexually
    harassed.

    From our November 7 post, Secondary Effects Across America: 1977-1999.

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