Vihan’s Video is one of the adult video stores that remain in Hell’s Kitchen. Many residents, including Vihan’s Video manager, report seeing adult video stores moving away and a decrease in walk-in traffic. Photo: Alejandro Dávila
The proliferation of adult video stores in Hell’s Kitchen is now “less of a problem,” said Community Board 4 committee member David Pincus, as stores appear to moving out of the area. But the city is reluctant to take the pressure off the stores, and this summer filed an appeal of a state Supreme Court decision that upheld a law protecting stores’ right to do business, extending more than a decade of litigation.
For years CB4 has said in its annual statement of district needs that adult video stores were on the rise in Midtown, and has asked the city to increase personnel and budget for the Office of Special Enforcement, an agency that implements laws pertaining to quality of life.
Even the 2013-14 statement released this summer refers to this proliferation – in error, as it turns out. “The section in the Statement of District Needs was erroneously kept from previous year drafts,” said Pincus, co-chair of the CB4 quality of life committee. “In actuality, the proliferation of adult DVD stores in Midtown West has become less of a problem.”
In part climbing rent prices and a redevelopment boom have pushed adult video stores from the area, according to Jean-Daniel Noland, chair of CB4 Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen land use and zoning committee. Instead, the area is seeing an increase in bars.
The city’s appeal could hasten the process. In July the city appealed a State Supreme Court ruling protecting stores whose adult-entertainment inventory takes up 40 percent or less of the store’s space. So-called 60-40 stores can operate anywhere in the city, but after more than 10 years of litigation, the city hopes to get the most recent ruling overturned. The New York City Law Department did not reply to questions by deadline.
But even with the 60-40 law, few stores remain. According to a 1994 study commissioned by Times Square Business Improvement District, Times Square and its environs had as many as 140 sex-related businesses during late 70s and early 80s; by 1994 the number of sex shops had dropped to 43, following the implementation of heavily litigated zoning regulations. Most of these businesses moved to a cluster along Eighth Avenue.
In 1977, the neon lights of an adult establishment glow on the east side of 41st and Eighth Avenue—where the New York Times building now stands. Adult establishments, including adult video stores, have been moving away from Hell”s Kitchen because of more stringent regulation, redevelopment and a lack of business. Photo: Maggie Hopp.
Some 10 years later The New York Times reported 18 sex shops on Eighth Ave., near Port Authority Bus Terminal, and on 37th and 39th streets near the Avenue of the Americas. In August, Margaret Hopp, a resident and photojournalist who documented adult businesses façades in the 1970s, found fewer than 10 video stores with adult content remaining on Eighth Avenue.
Asked why the city is going after video stores, Roderick Hills, a law professor at New York University and an expert in adult zoning laws, said that adult-use venues allegedly produce litter, crime and prostitution, as well as an adverse effect on property values – but he feels that studies making those claims about 60-40 stores are controversial because they are old or statistically unsophisticated. He believes that the city is adamant about appealing last year’s court decision in part to defend its zoning authority.
But Kathleen Treat, chair of the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association, is convinced that these stores have a detrimental effect. She calls adult video stores “blight” that “don’t bring anything positive to the neighborhood.”
Yet even Treat admits that adult video stores are disappearing from the neighborhood, likely because of a lack of patrons. Her group tried and failed to keep one adult video store from opening three years ago, but it closed soon after because there were not enough customers.
The manager of Vihan’s Video, a 60-40 store that opened five years ago on Eighth Avenue and 39th Street, agreed that business is slow for the industry.
“I think Internet is the problem,” said the manager, who refused to give his name out of a concern for job security. “It’s cheaper.”
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