GET A GOOD LAST LOOK
Owners moan: Ruling slams Times Sq. smut biz
WHAT A turnoff!
The owners of the city’s embattled peep shows, strip clubs and adult DVD stores say a recent court ruling could spell the end of their businesses.
In June, the state Court of Appeals ruled to allow tougher laws passed in 2001 barring any establishment with “live performances characterized by an emphasis on certain specified anatomical areas or specified sexual activities” from all but carefully selected city zones. The ban also applies to sexually explicit videos.
The rules could target the handful of remaining XXX businesses around Times Square and elsewhere that avoided being classified as adult establishments by selling a majority of non-pornographic products along with smut.
“New York has the tradition of being the freest and most tolerant city in the country, if not the world,” said attorney Erica Dubno, who is representing several of the businesses. “And unfortunately, freedom of expression is being restricted and small businesses are in jeopardy.”
She has asked the state’s highest court to reconsider its decision. If it does not, she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case — a move she called “the last gasp.” “I’m nostalgic for the old New York,” said Dubno. “Times Square has become like anywhere else, with the same stores, and New York has lost a lot of what made it so distinct. That’s what makes America great — that people can have their views.”
In the 1990s, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani spearheaded the city’s effort to crack down on porn shops that were once ubiquitous in Times Square.
The city Law Department said it is holding off on enforcing the reinstated rules until several legal loose ends are resolved.
But the department defended its approach to regulating the businesses as “reasonable and lawful to protect our quality of life” and designed to prevent “the widespread circumvention of zoning regulations.”