Question of the Week: Adult-Oriented Businesses
Featured — By Cedar Phillips on February 14, 2012 5:23 am
Controversies over adult-oriented businesses pop up from time to time. Do you think stores of this type are appropriate for the greater Uptown area? Does location matter? Do you have a favorite local store?
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
5 Comments
Of course they are appropriate. This is an upstanding establishment that has never been outlandish about what they are and just quietly go about their perfectly normal products. Kevin at Over There (http://over-there.tumblr.com/) said it best, “The world would be a much better place if men admitted that they cry and women that they masturbate.”
Venus over on Lake or the new Hustler store on Hennepin are a bit more ostentatious, but it’s still naughty nurse and cheerleader costumes in the front windows. Saint Sabrina was more over the top back before they started focusing exclusively on piercing and inking. I’d rather have a clean, well-lit Smitten Kitten on the corner of my block than another flash in the pan coffee shop any day.
Yes. They will only pop up if there is demand for them. If there is a demand, that demand ought be served. If there are better uses for a location, then those better uses will prevail as private entities seek to maximize there profits.
NIMBYism should contained to Linden Hills and the like.
well said!
I think they’re absolutely fine, too, but debates about the stores seem to pop up from time to time; about 30 years ago many local residents were in an absolute uproar over an adult bookstore at Lake and Hennepin (picketed the owners’ homes and everything) and thought it would destroy the area. I don’t know when the old Fantasy Gifts opened in the area, but they had a storefront for many years (not sure if anyone cared by that time) And just recently there was that flap about the Hustler store, although I think that was as much about the corporate nature of Hustler as opposed to anything else. Actually, speaking of Linden Hills, perhaps a Smitten Kitten-esque store could go into Linden Corner. Could be a good fit. I don’t want to see Uptown/Lyn-Lake become a focus for adult businesses — I think that WOULD change the character of the area, although for what it’s worth I once lived in the heart of Hollywood and walked past loads of stripper shoe stores, lingerie dens, and adult theaters on the way to my bus stop — it was part of Hollywood’s character, but such a concentration wouldn’t work so well here, I don’t think — but I think the area can absorb a number of these types of stores pretty easily. And I admit that I am not very up on these things, but it seems like somewhere in the area could also be a nice match as a permanent home to one of the burlesque shows or even a strip joint like the old Lusty Lady in Seattle. I’m not going so far as to advocate for such a place to open, but I don’t think it would be a huge deal if it did.
I’m open to any establishments that are protected by our freedom of speech.