Adult Bookstore Proposal Draws Fire

About 100 residents crowded the City Council meeting this week to plead with officials to prevent an all-night adult bookstore from opening in their neighborhood.

Some speakers cried and others yelled as they described their fears about the customers the store might attract.

Some speakers said they were incredulous that the bookstore was moving to the site of the former Cracker Barrel restaurant on Western and Orangethorpe avenues just months after the city won a decades-long battle to buy out the X-rated Pussycat Theater on Beach Boulevard.

“For years, you tried to get rid of the Pussycat Theater, and you finally get rid of it,” said resident Bob Ropeter. “I can’t believe our city is going through this, a city based on family values and built around Knott’s Berry Farm.”

Students from the nearby school of St. Pius V Catholic Church told officials they were afraid and would no longer feel safe walking or riding their bikes past the site.

Parishioners from St. Pius and the First Southern Baptist Church met over the weekend to discuss strategies to fight the permit application filed by the San Diego-based F Street Corp. chain of adult bookstores.

Only one resident, Don Henry, spoke in favor of the store. “What is really so wrong with the human body that we have to wear these fig leaves?” he asked.

No one representing the bookstore spoke at the meeting. Andy Zmurkiewicz, attorney for F Street Corp., has promised that the store would be well-lighted and well-guarded.

According to city procedures, Development Services Director Tom Lynch makes the final decision on a business permit within 30 working days of receiving an application.

Lynch, who has until April 4 to grant or deny the permit, said the meeting provided “valuable public input” but that he must remain neutral on the subject.

“I’m just going to treat it like any other application,” he said.