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| Living with the porn shop next door |
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OUR TOWN
OPEN COLUMN
--Living with the porn shop next door
Neighboring homeowners and businesses speak out against adult stores.
By ARCENIA HARMON of the Tribune's staff
Published Sunday, May 23, 2004
Most people like to get along with the neighbors, but some Interstate 70 residents and business owners are finding that living next to a porn shop is pushing "neighborly" a bit too far.
New legislation Newly passed state legislation would restrict and remove many adult-business highway signs. If signed into law by Gov. Bob Holden, it would:
? prohibit any new adult-themed billboards
? require existing signs to comply with size and content restrictions. An adult business located within a mile of a highway could have just two signs - one showing the name and hours, the other warning minors to keep out. When Tricia Potter and her family moved into their house off Exit 98 west of Boonville nearly two years ago, she didn't give First Amendment Video a second thought. Gerald Ulrich's store was down the road, far enough away that she couldn't see it from her house.
But since he moved his business next to her house, Potter said, life hasn't been the same. When people ask where she lives, Potter's answer is simple: "I tell them right by the biggest porno shop off the exit."
Just five feet off the Potters' property line, First Amendment Video, also called FAV I-70 of Cooper County, could be mistaken for the family's garage if it weren't for signs.
Thinking there must be a law against putting a porn shop so close to a house ¡ª the store also sells all-terrain vehicles ¡ª Potter went to officials. She said she was told that land-use restrictions don't exist outside Boonville city limits. "They told me there might never be none because nobody likes being told what to do with their property," she said.
As best she could, Potter explained to her children ¡ª ages 12, 11, 7 and 4 ¡ª what the store was all about. "I told them they sell videos like they would watch, but these had sexually explicit things on them," Potter said.
The younger ones don't quite understand why they can't go next door anymore. One afternoon, her youngest, a boy, walked over to the store with a nickel and asked to buy one of the ATVs.
Some parents, she said, won't send their kids to play at a house next to a porn shop, and some of her own friends don't stop by as often.
And every night she's reminded who her neighbor is. She said First Amendment's sign shines directly into her children's bedrooms.
"My kids have such a hard time going to sleep now," she said.
Potter said her biggest concern is not the material sold inside but the strangers coming off the interstate. She said that until she roped off her driveway, some customers used it to get to the parking area she shares with the video store.
Potter said she called a halt to one of her children's favorite summer activities: playing in lawn sprinklers.
"I don't want my daughter running around in a two-piece swimsuit and some guy going to a jack-off booth with that image in his mind," she said.
But Potter wants it understood she's no prude and calls Ulrich "a nice guy." She's been in his store and has bought adult material, mostly for bachelorette parties. "I don't have any problem patronizing his store," she said. "I just don't want it next door."
Potter is thinking about going to court to force Ulrich to put up a privacy fence in case he goes through with a plan to put out park benches for his customers.
Ultimately, Potter said, she'd like to sell out altogether, but she wonders if she can break even.
"I'll probably not get what I put into it," she said, pointing to the store, "because of this."
On the other side of I-70, Dogwood Restaurant serves families and church groups, and owner Marvin Gries isn't happy about the three porn shops across the way.
"This triple-X stuff is getting kind of ridiculous, especially around the Boonville area," he said. "It looks to me that they could just regulate it. It's just kind of filthy stuff."
Gries said adult-store owners have shown little regard for the moral and religious values of residents. He said the stores and the billboards that advertise them might be fine in some towns, but not Boonville.
"We're a different kind of people," he said. "We're not real pleased with that kind of advertisement. It's kind of bad when the people got children, young children, and want to know what all the signs are about."
But not all business owners have problems with their porn-shop neighbors. On a recent Sunday morning, the mostly elderly lunch crowd at Bobber's Restaurant at Boonville's Main Street exit off I-70 seemed to pay little attention to Passion's, the adult store across the highway.
Joyce Land, cashier at Bobber's for 12 years, doesn't think Passion's has affected business. From time to time, people stop in seeking directions to the bookstore.
She said Passion's is a better neighbor than the strip club that used to be there, Teaser's Palace. She said police were often called to the club to break up fights.
Land said that while she doesn't approve of what's available inside, Passion's "is not bothering nothing."
Next to Bobber's is a busy Conoco gas station, and Assistant Manager Rhonda Watson said three or four people a day come in asking for directions to Passion's.
She said it's good for business. "They come and buy a soda or something small," she said. "They get a little snack, and they go."
At I-70's Marshall exit, Passion's has its second store, Passion's Too.
Ken Yowell, executive director of the Marshall Chamber of Commerce, said adult businesses such as Passion's Too will always exist, but he opposes the store's location and the huge I-70 billboard.
Yowell said that while townspeople talk a lot about getting rid of such businesses, only state lawmakers have the power. He said he's not holding his breath.
"Anything that gets accomplished will have to be done in Jeff City," he said, "and so far, they haven't been able to do a damn-diddley thing."
Reach Arcenia Harmon at (573) 815-1711 or aharmon@tribmail.com.
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