Westside : Adult Theater Reopens Over Protests
The Pussycat Theater is back, much to the dismay of Santa Monica officials.
The adult theater on Second Street closed for a month and was replaced by a foreign-film operator.
The theater shut down after a Beverly Hills chiropractor took a three-month sublease on the theater space, a block west of the Third Street Promenade. Since mid-August, Dr. Shahin Ravery had been showing Iranian films at the theater, which he renamed Asia Theater. But problems with the sound system and foul smells inside the building forced Ravery to close, he said.
Last week, the X-rated Pussycat reopened, but city officials want to see it closed.
The city says the 30-year-old business, which was exempt from a 1981 ordinance banning adult theaters, is now bound by the law because it is considered a new business in the wake of its reopening. There are no other adult movie theaters in Santa Monica.
Officials also say that the Pussycat doesn’t fit the bill in downtown Santa Monica, a redeveloped area that draws thousands of people each day, including many families, to novelty shops, restaurants and mainstream movie theaters.
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