This California court ruling is a bit old (1989), but it strikes an appealing balance between community interests and free expression… The state Supreme Court on Thursday gave local governments more power to use “porn zoning” laws to restrict the location of theaters that show sexually explicit movies.In a widely watched test of municipal authority, […]
Impact of Porn
Even Hollywood Moved to Crack Down on Its Adult Businesses
Even Hollywood, hardly a center of conservative prudishness, years ago decided stricter adult-use zoning was in order… City and law enforcement officials long ago concluded that much of the prostitution, lewd behavior and other crime as well as the general seediness that plagues Hollywood emanates from the concentration of pornography shops in the area. Now, […]
Barney Frank: Zoning Balances First Amendment with Community Concerns
The Washington Post (1995) writes about Boston’s experience with zoning sex shops… …Barney Frank, now one of the most quotable leaders of the House Democratic minority…had been elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1972, representing part of downtown Boston. A short time later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could not ban sex-related businesses, but […]
Officials in Fairfax County, Virginia Regret Adult Zoning Loophole
Leave a hole in your zoning ordinance and you might regret it later. The Washington Post reports from Fairfax County: [T]o some of its neighbors and many county officials, MVC Latenight is an offensive eyesore in a town struggling to revitalize its historic center. The adults-only business that sells a variety of videos and sex […]
People Prefer to Buy Porn Outside Their Own Neighborhoods
An observation from The New York Times undercuts the oft-heard argument that if local people truly don’t want a porn shop, it will wither away: 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, […]
Not All Happy with Porn Shops in Greenwich Village
Peter Brooks from Talk Back Northampton asserted in a recent Northampton City Council meeting that the residents of Greenwich Village in New York coexist happily with their sex shops. The New York Times reports this isn’t completely true: At a recent community meeting in the Village, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was pelted for more than […]
Local Businesses Say Porn Shop Hurts Downtown Ypsilanti
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 […]
A Review of Adriene Sere, “Sex and feminism: Who is being silenced?”
NPN’s Jendi Reiter reviews an essay by Adriene Sere, “Sex and feminism: Who is being silenced?” This essay is published in Christine Stark & Rebecca Whisnant, eds., Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 2004, pp. 269-274).This is the fifth in a series of reviews of the essays in […]
CNN: “‘Dancing’ star Evans cites porn, adultery in divorce papers”
CNN reports today…Country singer Sara Evans alleges in divorce papers that her husband [Craig Schelske] committed adultery, was verbally and emotionally abusive, drank excessively and frequently watched pornography in their home…The couple married in 1993 and have three children ages 7, 3 and 2…In the filing in state court in suburban Franklin, where the couple […]
A Review of D.A. Clarke, “Prostitution for everyone: Feminism, globalisation, and the sex industry”
NPN’s Jendi Reiter reviews an essay by D.A. Clarke, “Prostitution for everyone: Feminism, globalisation, and the sex industry”. This essay is published in Christine Stark & Rebecca Whisnant, eds., Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 2004, pp. 149-205).This is the fourth in a series of reviews of the […]