NYC Mayor Cracks Down On Porn
New York City's X-rated businesses are scrambling to cleanup and cover up, CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman reports.
Signs advertising sex - which have been part of the city's streetscape for decades - are coming down. Show World, just off 42nd Street, used to boast about its "live nude review" and triple-x movies. Now, its just something called a "Las Vegas Revue," and in the front windows the shop displays electronic goods for sale. But taking words off signs is not enough for New York's mayor.
"If they make a little change, that is really a superficial change, they are going to get caught a month or two or three from now," said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Police, armed with court orders, caught the first three this weekend and closed them down. Six more will be closed Monday, and more in the coming weeks.
The closings are part of the mayor's crusade to clean up this city. Guiliani wants all but about 20 of more than 160 sex shops put out of business. After two years in the courts he now has the power to do that. His weapon is a new zoning law aimed not at restricting speech, but at minimizing nuisance.
"Wherever you see white, the porn shops will be able to relocate," said Gretchen Dykstra of Times Square Redevelopment, pointing to a map blocking out sections of Manhattan. "But still they ll have to be 500 feet from one another."
The shops also have to be 500 feet from any church, school or housing. The new plan will leave room for only two or three sex shops in all of Times Square.
"We will no longer be the red light district and more important, no neighborhood in New York will ever again be a red light district," Dykstra said.
Lawyer Herald Fahringer represents more than 100 of the businesses. Fahringer still plans to challenge the law on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment, but it may be too late.
"Unless these establishments cause some tangible harm, which they have never been able to prove, then they should be able to compete in the same marketplace as Kung fu movies," Fahringer said.
In midtown, Billy's Topless has coyly changed its name to Billy's Stopless. It too is facing closure. The women who work inside think the mayor's plan will backfire.
"Honestly, I don't think he's going to clean up New York," said waitress Sherry Mohamed.
"If people want it, I think it is going to come anyway," said bartender Alison Kleinberg. "It's going to go underground, in after-hours clubs. Girls won't be protected anymore. It's going to be a lot more dirty of a business."
Whether they go underground or go out of business, New York is certainly going to look a lot different.
Reported by Jeffrey Kofman