Today’s Barron’s contains our letter to the editor, responding to a July 2 interview with Peter Siris, managing partner of Guerilla Capital Management. In the interview (excerpts), Siris recommends strip clubs as an investment. Here is the text of our letter as published: Turning a Blind Eye To the Editor: Strip clubs may be lucrative […]
Secondary Effects
Yes, Let’s Talk about Jobs
Our debate with pro-porn blogger Renegade Evolution continues. In one of her emails to us today she wrote [typos in original], That’s great, see, I actually advocate listening to all sexworkers, even those who hate it. Now, doing the whole “your feelings are important” thing with me is not, oh, going to impress me much […]
US Appeals Court Upholds Daytona Zoning and Public Nudity Ordinances; No Grandfathering for Lollipop’s Gentlemen’s Club; Rebutting Daniel Linz
To celebrate July 4, it is our pleasure to present this ruling fresh from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Here we see our Constitution being applied intelligently and with compassion for people who live and work around adult enterprises. Attorney Scott D. Bergthold helped the city of Daytona, Florida win a […]
Viewing Booths and HIV: An Open Letter to Thomas Lesser of Northampton, Attorney for Capital Video
On June 20, we delivered a version of the following letter to Thomas Lesser and his associates at Lesser, Newman, Souweine & Nasser, a law firm in Northampton. Mr. Lesser represents Capital Video, which is trying to hang on to its viewing booth entertainment license in Springfield. We have not yet received any response, so […]
Strip Clubs Are the Next Hot Thing on Wall Street, Fund Manager Tells Barron’s
Strip clubs are a buy, says Peter Siris, managing partner of Guerilla Capital Management. Once you eliminate the mafia connection, there’s no problem. Never mind these clubs are like wrecking balls to marriages and communities, or the conditions the dancers work under, or the realities of sex trafficking. Siris pitches his case this week to […]
DC Porn Store Attracts Prostitution, Vagrants
In a situation similar to Apremont Triangle in Springfield, a porn shop with viewing booths has become a locus of prostitution and vagrancy in a Washington, DC neighborhood. The Hill reported in March: On Feb. 19, The Washington Post ran three stories lamenting the unrealized promises of revitalization made by proponents of the publicly financed […]
Gazette: “Porn store’s viewing booths raise stink in Springfield”
On June 18 Capital Video underwent a long-awaited violation hearing in Springfield. At issue was the viewing booth entertainment license of its Amazing.net porn shop in Apremont Triangle. This store has been controversial since its installation in 1990. The viewing booths were added in 1992. Several Springfield police officers and undercover detectives testified during the […]
Sexual Ecology: Porn, Promiscuity, and AIDS (explicit language)
Gabriel Rotello published Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men in 1997. The Nation described it as “The most important book about AIDS and gay men since And The Band Played On. And it is far better.” The Boston Globe wrote, “Rotello’s ambitious book is the Silent Spring of the AIDS epidemic.” NPN’s […]
Crime, Nuisances Motivate Cities to Regulate the Location of Adult Entertainment Uses
In 1988, Bruce Freeland, planning director of Bellevue, WA, surveyed the experience of other cities with adult enterprises. He finds that increased crime (e.g. rape, prostitution, drugs, robbery) and nuisances (e.g. noise, litter) often attend these businesses. Here are excerpts from his report: …adult entertainment regulations must seek to mitigate the secondary impacts of the […]
San Francisco: Loss of Porn Shop Brings Hope to Tenderloin District
Being a liberal city is no guarantee that porn shops will be free of secondary effects, such as crime and drug use. This May 21 article in BeyondChron, “San Francisco’s Alternative Online Daily”, calls the replacement of a porn shop with an art gallery a “breakthrough” for the Tenderloin district: When an art gallery moves […]