It sounds like Ye Olde City Council is going to cave in to the pompous prudes of purity in their quest to extinguish all erotica in the City of Manassas. The pitch forks have been sharpened and the torches lit.  

According to the News & Messenger:

After a  closed session Monday night, the Manassas City Council unanimously passed a resolution aimed at regulating sexually-oriented businesses in the city.

City officials say the resolution will allow officials to keep future sexually-oriented businesses — dubbed SOBs in the paperwork — away from schools, churches, day care centers, playgrounds, youth activity centers and libraries.

The resolution also allows the council to hire outside lawyers to provide a “second opinion” on the validity of existing permits for such businesses. The action will costed [sic] an estimated $71,000.

The action comes in the wake of an uproar over a mother-and-daughter plan to open KK’s Temptations, an adult boutique, in Old Town next month.

 

It sounds like the Salem Witch Trials have begun.  It might be cheaper for Ye Olde City Council to built a dunking pond over on ye Olde Museum Property.  If it floats, it might be erotica. 

 

One has to ask if the $71,000 will include protecting the children at the library, Kindercare and Parkside, all of which are over within 2 blocks of an adult shop on Mathis Avenue.  Parkside is a county school so maybe the intensity won’t be the same.   The proximity to the Candy Factory was the first excuse I was given by an elected official to oppose KK Temptations.  I went over to the site.  I could move an army in and out of the Candy Factory without walking in front of KK’s.  

Give me a break.  How much money do you all have over there?  You have invested a couple hundered thousand for the sesquicentennial and now this money earmarked for a second opinion? 

Many of us are tired of hearing the KID card being dropped.  There are lots of things adults get to do that kids can’t do.  Its up to their parents to tell them that, if they are overly indulged and don’t know it already. 

The good people of the City of Manassas need to realize that for every person who comes to them whining about what bad things might be behind the door of KK’s, there are 10 more of us who don’t care.  We don’t have to go to KK’s if we aren’t in the mood or interested.  We do care about hypocrisy though.  Take the $70k and spend it on an additional police officer to clean the pan handlers out of the center of the City.   Run the jokers out of Manassas Shopping Center who are just hanging out and revving engines.  Have this officer do an hourly drive-by the 7-11 that serves as the gateway to Old Town.  Bad stuff goes on there.

I love Manassas City.  I lived there when I first came to Prince William County.  I don’t however, like this hypocritical, false sense of moral outrage over an adult boutique.  This outrage seems to be coming from people who ordinarily would want the free markets to prevail.  Well, let them  prevail.  Let the merchants of Old Town set the standards for store windows and shop ‘behavior.’   If something goes on ‘improper’ then handle it.  Until then, live and let live.  The people of the greater Manassas area are perfectly capable of making their own morally appropriate choices. 

Every time I turn on my TV I hear about too much government interference into the life of individuals.  This is a prime example of too much government.  The City Council now is interferring with  a women’s clinic that has been in the same approximate location for 21 years.  Additionally, they want to ultimately keep 2 women from opening a store that caters to adults.  It is beginning to sound like a war on women, but I am certain that is a coincidence. 

Give it a rest.  Not everyone feels the urge to have a mother’s march on merchandise.  The City Council is caving and catering to the whims of a few and ignoring the majority. 

13 Thoughts to “Ye Olde City Council …Caves”

  1. Well, the verb does rhyme with “duck”……

  2. Elena

    WOW, in these harsh economic times the city has 70 grand to WASTE on erotica?

    MH,
    LOVE the visual of books being tested for erotic themes if they float!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. Elena

    I also find it very hard to believe, that the City hasn’t had to cut the “fat” somewhere due to budget constraints. There aren’t any needy children, living on the edge of poverty that might benefit from such a “surplus” of money. Yep, maintaining those religious values is definately paramount to other more urgent social needs.

  4. marinm

    When do they open? I plan to go and check it out.

    I agree that it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.

  5. Grand opening of KK’s Temptations is Oct. 20.

    God has a sense of humor. The Center for Arts on Battle Street in Manassas, not 100 feet from KK’s Temptations, is hosting a Neil Simon sex comedy, Nov. 5-20, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Synopsis, “Middle-aged & married, overworked & overweight, Barney Cashman wants to join the sexual revolution before it’s too late. He arranges meetings w/3 different women & the fun begins!” Students admitted, just $12 (and seniors 65+). $15 for the rest of us.

    That and the can-can dancers at the Harris Pavilion a few weeks ago, shaking their thighs and garters in full view of council members.

    Or Magnificent Belly Dance performing in their costumes with swords – their studio is upstairs in Old Town.

    The hypocrisy of the “location” argument just frosts my cupcakes. Adult and family-friendly shops and activities can co-exist in that four-block area.

    Wouldn’t it have been perfect if KK Temptations were a sponsor of Rooftop Productions’ “Last of the Red Hot Lovers?”

    http://www.center-for-the-arts.org/rooftop/

  6. Thanks for pointing all of this hypocrisy out, Cindy.

    What are they thinking!!!!

    I am real tired of the location argument also. It doesn’t fly with me.

    Wasn’t Battle Street refurbished to allow for at least 2 restaurants to become bistros? Will alcohol be served outside? Can kids drink? Of course not. Kids don’t get to do everything adults do. Alcohol, however, is not a family friendly concept. In fact, its a serious health problem in this country as is drunk driving.

  7. Censored bybvbl

    The City Council should consider how the protest was drummed up to begin with – through an email campaign by Jackson Miller. Just another waste of taxpayers’ dollars to promote a political agenda.

  8. The perfect romance package deal: dinner at Okras, two tickets to the “Last of the Red Hot Lovers at the Kellar Theatre and a night at the Manassas Junction Bed and Breakfast, with a naughty little package from KK’s Temptations. All within a stroll in the moonlight. Happy Anniversary!

    There’s nothing wrong with any of the above. Doris Day and Cary Grant in “A Touch of Mink” were spicier than that.

  9. Censored, you have left out that it took them 21 years to notice that there is a woman’s clinic there. Finally some nut-cake AG decides to advance his own anti abortion agenda to put the squeeze on clincs in Virginia and the Council stands up and cheers? Definitely a war on women.

    Good for Councilman Wolfe for voting no, although I didn’t like the bullcrap that came out of his mouth.

    How much money is the City going to pay out in fines and getting sued before they stop getting led around by the nose?

  10. Wolfe gets it but doesn’t get it. Roe vs. Wade was decided in January, 1973. That’s the law. Rule of law and all. How much is the City willing to pay when they get sued? How much is Virginia going to have to pay from getting sued during the Kookoonelli reign of terror?

    from News and Messenger:

    Councilman Mark Wolfe cast the only dissenting vote saying the issue was a matter for the state to resolve.

    “This discussion is about abortion. It’s a matter that’s also about political process. Abortion is a terrible thing. Almost always abortion represents a failure. I wish … there were no such procedures. The law regarding abortion is settled, but remains a topic that gives rise to the greatest and honestly held passions on both sides,” Wolfe said.

    Although Wolfe said he agreed with Cuccinelli’s decision, he said it wasn’t the council’s place to pass such a resolution.

    “Being a state matter determined by the governor and by the General Assembly this is necessarily a political discussion and a political decision. Being a state political matter, I believe it is inappropriate for the council as a body representing the city of Manassas to weigh in on that debate,” he said. “Nothing in this opinion speaks to local involvement. We — the city — do not have the power to regulate abortion clinics.”

    How are those sex ed programs over there in the City coming along? What is the City doing to prevent unwanted pregnancy?

    On the one hand, I hear all this bitching, whining and complaining out of City people about how much services cost for medicaid, schips, etc. This is the most severe case of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE I have ever seen.

  11. The city might very well be spending a little more capital than they realize. I talked to at least 10 people today who plan on limiting their spending trips to the city after seeing today’s paper.

  12. City Patron

    If what bvbl reports is true and there will signs hanging in windows… then I will take pictures of any participants and we can boycott those establishments.

    I will post the link containing the pictures on the newspaper comments section and here so that everyone knows which businesses are part of this wacky movement.

  13. There is no planned boycott of any shop owner here on this blog. People may take whatever information is available and make that determination for themselves. If readers choose to give them their business, then that is up to them. Knowledge is power.

    I understand individual merchants are now not going to be doing an hour protest. Good. I would hate to see them coerced into doing this. It hurts business during a high volume time.

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