No Peeping

photo: Adam Wallacavage

City Council last week passed an ordinance sponsored by Councilmen Frank DiCicco and James Kenney that forces the city's adult bookstore owners to close their doors at 10 p.m. each night and keep them locked until 8 a.m., depriving patrons of their late-night peep thrills.

Although the ordinance does not say so, the bill's intended targets are the city's 24-hour adult bookstores near 13th Street.

According to Kenney, he and DiCicco have received numerous complaints from residents and business owners along 13th Street about large crowds gathering nightly outside the area's adult bookstores.

"They fall short," says Kenney about the adult bookstore owners. "We are not trying to outlaw or censor them. They are relatively legitimate businesses. But they have more responsibility to keep people from congregating out in front of their stores.… If they had policed themselves, this would not have been an issue."

DiCicco, Kenney and other city officials have been trying to clean up 13th Street, particularly between Locust and Market Streets, where prostitutes and drug dealers can be seen nightly.

Daniel Liss, owner of Danny's Adam & Eve adult bookstore, which is located near the corner of Walnut and 13th Streets, sees the ordinance as an ineffective attempt to rid 13th Street of drugs and prostitution.

"You can't blame the bookstores for drugs and prostitution. The problem is throughout the city," says Liss, who has operated Danny's as a 24-hour store for 20 years. "We have no problems at my bookstore.… My building is attractive and well-kept and well-lit, and I monitor the front of the building."

Liss says this is the first time in his memory that the city has tried to regulate his business, which depends on late-night foot traffic for 50 percent of its revenues. Liss, therefore, plans to challenge the ordinance in court.

"Our only recourse is to try to get an injunction and fight this," says Liss, who is trying to organize the other adult-bookstore owners.

According to the ordinance, an adult bookstore will be defined solely by the content of the materials it sells, an approach that will undoubtedly draw criticism from First Amendment activists.

"We will wait and see," says Larry Frankel of the Philadelphia ACLU about challenging the ordinance. "First Amendment issues are there."

-Mark Naymik