NEWS

Chelsea porn stores seen in harsh light

By Albert Amateau

Upset over two pornography shops that opened within a week of each other on Eighth Ave., more than 100 Chelsea residents met last week and vowed to explore ways to close them down.

The Blue Store, whose blinding blue lights have upset residents more than the pornography within, opened at 206 Eighth Ave. on May 27. A week later, Rainbow Station, displaying sports and novelty clothing up front and selling porn videos in the back, opened across the street at 207 Eighth Ave.

But neither store displays any erotic material in the windows and both apparently comply with the city’s legislation allowing the sale of pornographic material in stores where 60 percent of the merchandise is not visual or written pornography.

Nevertheless, the Department of Buildings last week issued the Blue Store a violation for its oversized blue neon signs which do not comply with the district’s zoning code. But the likelihood that the store would be assessed escalating fines starting at $800 was not enough for most people.

“How do we get them out?” shouted one outraged Chelsea resident at the June 5 meeting at St. Peter’s Church with representatives from the 10th Precinct, Community Board 4 and the offices of City Councilmember Christine Quinn and State Sen. Tom Duane.

One suggestion was to pass out handbills urging the new stores’ potential patrons to buy their porn at about six other neighborhood stores with quieter display windows and located in the side streets off Eighth Ave.

“In any case, it’s not going to happen tomorrow or in a month,” said Wade Watson, president of the 20th St. Block Association. “It may be a long, hot summer.”

Some neighbors at the meeting last week said they’d be satisfied if the two shops toned down their windows but most insisted that the stores should go.

A man who identified himself as Joey Gold, manager of The Blue Store, declined this week to discuss the store’s décor or operation. At the Rainbow Station, Danny Cronon, a manager, said on Tues. June 10 that the erotic videos were in the back and not visible from the street. “It looks like a boutique from the street. It’s not sex, sex, sex. It’s style. It looks like a 42nd St. clothing store,” Cronon said.

For Chelsea residents, that’s the problem. “We have enough adult stores in the neighborhood. This isn’t Times Sq.,” said one Chelsea resident.

The Blue Store moved into a ground-floor retail space between 20th and 21st St. formerly occupied by Jennifer Convertibles. Rainbow Station moved into space formerly occupied by a frame shop.

Mike Pizzano, community affairs officer of the 10th Precinct, said the Blue Store, located around the corner from the precinct house, is frequently monitored because it is a 24-hour operation. “They’re not doing anything illegal,” he said. Police have seen Blue Store employees checking ID’s and refusing admittance to underage boys, he said.

Both the Blue Store and Rainbow station are a few hundred feet from P.S. 11, an elementary and middle school on W. 21st St., between Eighth and Ninth Aves.

The Blue Store offers mostly heterosexual porn videos, while the Rainbow Station features gay videos, and there are no peep shows in either location, said Pizzano.