Sex Cruising Strip to Be Closed : Gates Will Block Alley Long Plagued by Nighttime Interludes, Drugs

For years the two-block alley near Le Sex Shoppe on Lankershim Boulevard has hosted a nightly parade of male prostitutes, free sex and drugs.

Merchants whose properties line the alley bounded by Morrison and La Maida streets have started their days sweeping up used condoms, broken bottles and cigarette butts.

Residents have used the early-morning hours to catch up on sleep after another night of blaring car stereos and all-night revelers cruising for sex.

“It was like Grand Central Station,” said resident Kent Snyder, whose home, garage door and back yard border the alley.

But relief may be in sight now that the city of Los Angeles has agreed to cut off public access to the alley with locked gates. The gates’ installation next month should end a three-year movement by the community to stop the flow of revelers who residents say are drawn to their neighborhood primarily by Le Sex Shoppe, which sells adult books, videos and sex toys.

The cruising had been going on for years, residents and merchants say, but the number of men headed to the alley seemed to double in 1992 for reasons police have been unable to explain. Cruisers also park on neighborhood streets for hours, their cars’ rocking motion betraying the activity inside, according to complaints.

The Los Angeles Police Department has made hundreds of lewd-conduct and prostitution arrests over the years, but the problem continues. The city placed “No Cruising” signs--which make it unlawful to pass the same point two times in six hours--at each entrance to the alley. But cruisers would knock them down, steal them or disregard them.

Property owners and police finally combined forces and decided to lobby the city to cut off public access to the alley. The resulting gates will be placed behind Le Sex Shoppe and a gay bar called The Lodge.

“Every other step we took didn’t work,” said Sgt. Glynn Martin, who heads the vice unit at the North Hollywood Division. “We figured if we physically closed it off, it would at least deter people.”

Councilman John Ferraro, whose district includes the North Hollywood alley, presented a motion to the City Council to cut off access to the alley and it was passed in May. The city cannot curtail hours of operation at the 24-hour Le Sex Shoppe, according to a Ferraro aide, because of a court ruling favoring the right of adult bookstores and arcades to operate when their owners choose, so long as they don’t offer live shows.

“We hope it will work,” Ferraro said. “If it doesn’t work, we will have to revisit the issue with the Police Department and the community and work out another option.”

Robert DePiano, attorney for EWAP Inc., the corporation that owns the five Le Sex Shoppes in the city, said his clients fully support the installment of the gates.

“People outside of the building don’t bring us any money,” DePiano said. “I don’t deny that some of the cruisers may patronize the store, but cruisers come from all walks of life and might also go to the 7-Eleven down the street.”

For his part, the owner of The Lodge, Steve Miele, said he took over the business just two weeks ago and knows very little about the closing ofthe alley or the reasons behind the move.

The alleyway will be barred to the public for 18 months from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The materials and labor to install the gates were anonymously donated to the Police Department and all nearby property owners will receive keys upon request.

“It will give them no place to go,” Snyder said. “These people like the idea of ducking into the alley or parking near a closed business to do what they come to do.”

Snyder said four years ago, when he first moved to the middle-class neighborhood filled with older homes, a few apartments and two churches, he couldn’t figure out why the alley was so busy. The man who sold him the house never warned him about the lewd activity when he purchased the two-bedroom house with four adjacent rental units.

But Snyder caught on quickly.

“I was coming home late one night and all of a sudden this naked man comes from behind this little corner where the trash can is and runs across the alley,” Snyder said.

During the day, Snyder would watch high school students smoking crack in the alley. By midnight, cars were parked in front of his house, rocking back and forth for hours.

“It is kind of embarrassing to have guests over with all that happening,” Snyder said.

J. L. McConnell, who lives in a three-story house that her architect father built in 1933, said the alley has been a public nuisance for at least the past decade.

“Once I counted a car going around the block 17 times in an hour,” McConnell said. “We always see the same men standing on the corner of the alley. They go up the street with somebody, then come back and perch themselves on the corner again.”

Several men approached in or near the alley Friday night refused to be interviewed.

The alley has also made it difficult for McConnell to sell her house. It has been on the market for three months and is being offered for a few hundred thousand dollars less than valued, she said.

“We had two families interested,” McConnell said. “But as soon as they stepped outside the house and saw the adult bookstore and the alley, they were no longer interested.”

Residents and merchants agree that the gates will not solve the cruising problem, but as one merchant said, “At least they won’t park here in the alley to do their thing.”

Although the merchant, who declined to be identified, said he closes shop at 6 p.m. on weekdays, many times he returns to his shop after dark and finds the back of his business crowded with cruisers.

“It really is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s the busiest alley in the world. I am just lucky I don’t have to live here.”

Miguel Maldonado, a manager at Firestone, said his company placed high-powered lights in their large lot to try to stop the men from parking there, but to no avail. “It bugs me, but all I can do is sweep up the trash before the customers arrive,” he said.

All agree that what attracts most of the cruisers is Le Sex Shoppe.

Snyder said he has written to the adult shop three times in the last three years, asking the owner to keep the back door shut after 10 p.m., but has received no response.

“It is the adult store that adds the odd characters,” agreed McConnell, who has a bird’s-eye view of the back of the shop.

A Le Sex Shoppe manager, who declined to identify himself, said most of the men that dally in the alley come from nearby gay bars. But he does concede that patrons who fondle or kiss each other inside the store are kicked out by a security guard directly into the alley.

“They will just stand there and when we tell them to leave they don’t listen to us,” he said.

He said the cruisers have brought problems for the shop too, including the animosity it has created among the shop, the police and nearby property owners. “I don’t care if they put the fences up--it will probably help business,” he said.