The Wichita City Council is going to great, legally complex lengths to try to keep adult video and bookstores and other sexually oriented businesses out of Old Town and the future arena district. Doing so is tricky because of the First Amendment, as it should be. But city leaders are to be praised for initiating zoning changes last week aimed at protecting the public investment in these core districts. There can be a place for such businesses in the community, but that place need not be in the heart of an area so crucial to downtown redevelopment, tourism and quality of life.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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19 Comments
Excellent post, Rhonda. Old town has seen its ups and downs over the years, and a suitable plan really needs to be implemented to make it a place that the family can enjoy.When I lived in Wichita, I loved the ambiance of the place: The old buildings with their ornate carvings, the botiques, coffee shops, etc.. The place could shine with the right management and businesses. But if adult orientated business are allowed in, the place will lose any chance it has of being associated with “family values”.
I agree, it would only be a detriment to what the business community is trying to accomplish in Old Town.
I haven’t been to Old Town since last summer. On Saturday nights, it’s a drunken mob scene. That’s “Family Values”? Seems to me alcohol consumption is the main “value”.
I thought the republicans wanted less goverment? As a patron of many old town nightspots I find it odd to have the city using tax assistance to help nightclubs and bars. BTW most bars and clubs use sex to sell their products. short skirts school girl outfits, the whole concept of hooters is nothing but hyped up sexual tension.
Oh yes, let us keep the ‘adult’ businesses away from the family atmosphere of the bars of Old Town. Yep..wouldn’t want any 11 year olds exposed to anything when they drop in for a drink at midnight.
Oh….I forgot, 11 year olds can’t go to bars—so, where are the family establishments that the council wants to protect?
Does the existence of an adult book store create a harm? Why can’t it be across the street from a church–will the poor church going, unforgiving Christians sin if they look at it?
Spare me the city council and others ’saving us’ from such trash. I would rather they spend more time on the shootings, fighting and gang problems than worrying about where a bookstore sets up shop.
People are starting to move downtown, and I think that is the reason, but you will not find families moving down there. However, the expensive quater million dollar condos that are selling down there appeal to the wealthy retiree, so I think cleaning up Old Town for them is the real purpose.
The nightclubs are just that, just for nights. But I also know that Old Town is basically for adults. I don’t think you will get a McDonalds with a Playland built in the middle of Old Town.
In all honesty, moving all the adult bookstores and strip clubs to Old Town, would be better. Now! I would say that restricting them from going to the Arena area or the Waterwalk is a good idea, but Old Town? Nah! Let them in. It is an adult district.
But Adult entertainment has the preception of lowering property values, and the developers of the condos don’t want that.
It’s sex Wichita, get over itSex and nudity is a normal part of life for most people, especially married people. And guess what? You won’t turn to stone if you see someone naked. Neither will your kids. Kids go to nudist camps all the time. They turn out fine.So Click here: http://hem.passagen.se/rickardk/foto.htmland get over it.
As for religion, which is the real reason against this, it is just a control mechanism. Hell is to scare us like small children. If we are bad, bad things happen to us. This is like being good for Santa Clause.
“Kids go to nudist camps all the time”
Man, I missed something here.
Strip joints attract the worst of the worst. Eliminating meeting places for depraved people hardly seems like a bad idea. It has nothing to do with religion or morals. Strip joints lead to trouble. Why is anyone blind to that?
I wonder, Rhonda, what you meant by”There can be a place for such businesses in the community.”
I can’t think of a reason for a community to make room for the exploitation (both physical and emotional) of men by women, which is what really happens in strip joints.
The way to get rid of those places is to set up a fee structure for services. They’ll disappear in a heartbeat.
Some time ago someone stated that it is a game of statics. you look up the crime rate in the area of an adult store and use them to state they are the cause. Then the person wondered what the crime rate was for the area around Imanuel church on So. Broadway.
For the most part I had to agree with them. I for one become concerned when ever I go to the Eagle’s office. Even in the daytime is seem a bit shady around there. Should the Eagle be shut down?
I can see the adult stores being restricted from certain areas. But to argue that they should be banned from a area like downtown when most of the buisnesses in the area are bar and clubs seem crazy.
It is like a LSD addict putting down a coke addict. Last I knew no one has crashed their car after buying a porn video.As for strip clubs and their clents. How many buisness deal have been done at a strip club?A classy strip club in old town would draw more of our “Buisness men” than winos.
The other side of the coin is, there are quite afew stores already in Wichita. I hardly see a need for more.
Has any adult themed entertainment ask for tax breaks, low interest loans, irb’s, or start up grants from the city? Now check the restaraunts and bars in Old Town, and how many have went broke. Same people go back for more funds to open a similar place. Revolving money door at city hall?
I agree that old town probably wouldnt’ be the best place for an adult business. Many of the men who travel to wichita on business probably wouldnt’ agree with you.
I live near an adult book store. We’ve never had a problem from the store itself, or it’s customers. No one urinates on the building or congregate in the parking lots. In fact, they’ve been very quiet. If it wasn’t for the name on the sign, you might not even realize what the business is.
The only problems that come up over the years have been from the religious community that wants to shut them down. They stand on the sidewalk with their children and picket. (I always pondered the mentality that would bring minors to protest an adult business) They block the parking lots so the customers have to park down the street and walk through them to enter.
This year they haven’t been there. it’s been a welcome break to be able to spend time with the family after working hard all day.
They are a business. They’ve been there for decades where I live and I dont’ believe they should be moved or shut down.
I’ve thought that it was petty that some posters bash Rhonda for her more liberal leaning ways . . . But, I have wondered if the Eagle wasn’t near Old Town, would Rhonda care so much about adult businesses being there? Sounds suspiciously like a “NIMBY” bias influencing an opinion here.
Why stop with sex shops and tattoo parlors? There are a lot of schlock businesses we need to keep out of our neighborhoods! We could also ban used car lots, restaurants that sell “ambiance” instead of food, cigar bars, lawyers offices and insurance agents, etc. Maybe the way to rid ourselves of all the “undesirables” is to just ban motorcycle and SUV parking within city limits.Once we’ve gotten rid of all the evil influences, we can look around and see if anybody’s left.
Rhonda starts some good blogs, but I think she needs a nite out. Anyone have some xxx videos?
I’ve never been to a “strip club” I’ve no real desire to go there or to expose my son to those that do go there.
I’ve also never been to the Chamber of Commerce. I’ve no desire to go there, or to expose my son to those that go there.
The dif is that I can avoid and teach my son to avoid buisinesses that are “naughty”…..we just don’t go there. But I cannot protect myself or my son from the naughty busisiness of those in the chamber of commerce……their tentacles grasp far beyond their downtown building. And no one is monitoring or censoring them.
JR — your proof of all that would be exactly what?
Never mind. I really don’t care to read your silly answer.
It seems that the people who are against adult book stores don’t get any sex anyways, so they don’t have a need for them!
Seriously though, like somebody mentioned earlier, you don’t hear anything about these stores except from people trying to get rid of them. However, you hear at least once a week about a bar shooting.
To reply to September 19, 2005:”They are a business. They’ve been there for decades where I live and I dont’ believe they should be moved or shut down.”There’s much talk about profiling…..those of Arab decent are singled out as potential suicide bombers, etc.—well statistic wise, it hasn’t been 52 yr. old grandmothers or other similar people types. So in that same vein, not everyone visiting the “store” for a movie or toy is a sexual offender, but it’s known they have a problem w/ pornography…..why would you want to risk attracting a sexual offender to the area where you take your family for entertainment, go to church, or live?Let’s see……who for the most part doesn’t care if the store is there? Men? Women? or Children? I would venture to say Men….then ask yourselves…Who is at RISK? Well, let’s see…..how many MEN have you heard of that have been abducted, raped, murdered, or buried alive? HELLO!Ask any realty company, your property value goes down.Check the statistics, crime rate does go up in the surrounding area.Not sure how you would describe a “store” client who throws used needles & syringes, used condoms, condom wrappers, empty whiskey bottles, sex toys, hard core pictures/magazines over into the fence into the church yard for children to find? Is that someone you would want for a neighbor?The 5858 S. Broadway store moved in to a Ker McGee gas station 1 MONTH AFTER the Christian Chapel was moving in the old Midway Baptist church AND applied for a “reading room” license….and I believe most SOB owners open up their store w/ the idea to make money, this owner definitely had another agenda. In the beginning, they had an “escort” service….. those ladies would go over to the church yard and proposition men who there playing basketball w/ their families. I promise you, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the problems XXX has caused in the neighborhood.Why would you have a “store” close to a CHURCH or a SCHOOL PATHWAY? It’s absurd to say that’s ok. any village idiot can figure out that children will be at the crosswalk on 1306 E. Harry M-F 9a or 4p. There will also be mothers there to meet their children. The upcoming zoning ordinance is not just about downtown, but it’s about neighborhoods, schools, and churches also, and the current zoning laws are NOT working.In reply to “to expose my son” you are forgetting “my daughter”, “my wife”, “my mother”, “grand children”,etc.You CANNOT PROTECT your children when those places are close to where you live, there are several cases of our youth becoming addicted to pornography due to picking up hard core magazines/ images that “blew” over into a yard from a “store”. You and I know they are thrown by someone. Again…..this is just the tip of the iceberg, I promise you.