2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

provide room for constitutionally protected speech as well as protecti and general welfare of the people. on for the health, safety The Commission noted that a proliferation o: adult entertainment uses in the Ti and Theater Districts could be related to the decade -old absence of major investment Square development decisions, and to a substantial decline in economic viability. or Period, tax arrears on West 42nd Street were 26 percent higher thantheDoer three-year Midtown. During a two-year period in the early 1970s, sales tax revenues in the area rate for by 43 percent compared to an 11 percent increase citywide. In addition declined declined in the area at a rate greater" than that of the city as a whole.,The1Con-uretasales identified several businesses in the area that had closed, for example the Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Times Square, and noted that the " Manhattan be directly related to the escalation of adult uses.,, decline of economic activity ... can Crime data for 1975 were also analyzed, leading the Commission to state: "Increases in felonious criminal activity in areas where concentrations of adult uses are located overwhelming " The Commission observed that in Midtownsts are Precinct) in which one or more adult uses were Iocated had 6915 e ercent (subareas of a complaints than those in other subareas. Posts with one or more adult uses constituted 34.5 percent of the total posts in Midtown, but accounted for 47.1 percent of all complaints. Comparing posts with one or more adult uses to posts without an adult use, complaints f felonious assault were 142.3 percent hi h _ P or er,eny higher, rape was 185.2 percent higher and robbery was 130.2c were 88.9 percent percent nt hhigher. Impacts Identified by the Office of Midtown Enforcement The 1983 Annual Report of The Mayor's Office of Midtown Enforcement (OME) suported the City Planning Commission's earlier findings. The OME's report stated that in the pearl and mid -1970's, "Times Square was clogged with pimps, johns, and hookers as well as the addicts and muggers who along with them preyed on the public." The report noted that 1,200 Prostitutes worked out of the dozen or so prostitution hotels and the 23 massage parlors concentrated along Eighth Avenue between 34th and 55th Streets, and another twelve sex businesses were wedged in between these businesses. OME strategies (including investigation, enforcement, seeking changes in the. Nuisance Abatement Law, closing hotels and obtainn�oobtaining legislative substantial financial 36 EVER00135