2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

number of merchants complained about the high visibility of a triple -X video store that has semi -naked women painted on the windows and flashing lights over the door. "This is bad for the atmosphere of the entire neighborhood. A lot of tourists come through here, and the [triple -X video] store can hurt everybody's business." In November, at a community board meeting in the Clinton area of Manhattan, residents of West 30th Street in Manhattan testified for six hours about a 15 foot illuminated sign, "NUDE," that advertises a new topless club on Eighth Avenue near Madison Square Garden. Although worried about the proliferation of adult entertainment uses eroding their quality of life, it was reported that residents were most outraged by the blatant signage. "A lot of them just want to go into [the club] and smash the join[," said a member of the community board. About 400 residents marched and picketed a 24-hour triple -X video store on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn because "it's a block and a half from an elementary school, and near a McDonald's and Burger King where high school kids hang out," according to one civic leader. "We feel it doesn't belong here." In Community Board 12 in the Bronx, a neighborhood bordering Westchester County, residents have organized several protests against a topless club that opened in January on East Gun Hill Road near Laconia Avenue. The opposition is concerned about the location of the club. "The guy is surrounded by churches and schools," said the community board chairman noting that the three other adult entertainment uses in the district are in primarily commercial areas. Last fall, the Board was successful in deterring the owner of a bar on East 233rd Street from converting to a strip club. "We basically just told him that he was hurting the neighborhood's image and himself by doing it and that we'd fight him," said the chairman of the community board. "He agreed to stop." In Jackson Heights, Queens, members of the Jackson Heights Neighborhood Association objected to a nude juice ,bar located on a commercial strip, Northern Boulevard, two blocks from a school. When informal protests were ineffective, they initiated protests every Friday and Saturday night. "We're not questioning at all the First Amendment or theright to be nude," said a local merchant and civic leader. "It's just their location, period." On East 53rd Street in Manhattan, between Second and Third Avenues, some residents have formed a block association to protest the appearance of two triple -X video stores. The stores epitomize a relapse for the previously notorious block known as the Loop for its male prostitution and profusion of adult entertainment uses. "This was just beginning to get cleaned up," said one nearby resident. "Now, this." A landlord across the street from the video stores 45 EVER00144