2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

VII. OVERALL STUDY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION DCP found that the number of adult entertainment establishments increased substantially throughout New York City between 1984 and 1993, increasing 35 percent — from 131 to 177. More than 75 percent of adult entertainment establishments are located in zoning districts that permit residential uses. Often these uses are found in concentration, such as in the Times Square area and Chelsea in Manhattan. Adult uses are now located in more of the city's neighborhoods than before, and have clustered within them. For example, between 1984 and 1993, the number of community districts with seven or more adult entertainment establishments nearly tripled, from three to eight. Seventy-five percent of the adult uses are located in ten of the city's 59 community districts. Outside of central locations, adult businesses have clustered along major thoroughfares, such as Queens Boulevard and Third Avenue in Brooklyn. Adult entertainment is more readily accessible now than it was ten years ago. Cable television, newsstands, bookstores and many general interest video stores also provide adult viewing material. The proliferation of adult entertainment establishments within New York City is attributable in part to the increase in adult video stores, which recently have begun to carry inexpensive videos, and growing numbers of high-priced topless and nude bars. Changing sexual mores since the scourge of AIDS may be another factor. One segment of that industry, adult triple -X videos, reported $2.1 billion in sales and rentals in 1993. Within New York City, the topless club segment of the industry is estimated conservatively as a $50 million a year business, employing about 1,500 dancers. DCP found secondary impacts, similar to those found in studies done by other localities For example, the Town of Islip, New York, found that adult uses create "dead zones" in commer- cial areas that shoppers avoid. Los Angeles, California, found a. greater proportion of certain crimes in areas of concentration of adult uses compared to the city as a whole, and other impacts traced to negative public perceptions about adult uses, such as the need to provide private security guards in parking lots and closing area businesses early. Los Angeles also found that adult businesses were perceived by the majority of survey respondents as exerting a negative impact on surrounding business and residential properties, stating "in terms of the attitudes of the respondents towards such businesses, the conclusion must be drawn that the overall effect on surrounding properties is considered to be negative." Indianapolis, Indiana, in cooperation with the Indiana University School Of Business' Division of Research, surveyed national real estate appraisers and found that 75 percent of the appraisers - 59 EVER00157