Pastor Opposes Adult Bookstore’s Permit Bid

A local minister has started a campaign to prevent an adult bookstore from opening, saying that the store would bring more than books to the city’s entertainment corridor.

“The prostitutes in Las Vegas are already talking about who gets to work Buena Park because the pickings will be ripe there,” the Rev. Wiley S. Drake told the City Council this week.

Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church, urged officials to reject the permit application filed last week by San Diego’s F Street Corp., which has 10 outlets in San Diego County.

The chain wants to open a 24-hour adult bookstore on the site of the former Cracker Barrel Restaurant at Western and Orangethorpe avenues.

The chain’s attorney said Drake’s concerns are unfounded. “The F Street Bookstores are very clean, well-lit, secure places,” Andy Zmurkiewicz, who is also a spokesman for the chain, said.

Tom Lynch, the city’s director of developmental services, said Thursday that action on the chain’s application for the store will be taken within 30 working days.

A few residents have called to protest plans for the store, he said, but the decision will be based strictly on what local ordinances allow. “The government stays neutral,” he said.

The location proposed for the new F Street Bookstore would meet city code requirements for adult businesses, Zmurkiewicz said.

The chain’s existing stores have security guards and follow strict policies to make sure that minors are not on the premises, he said, and that drug users and prostitutes stay away.