Giggles is no laughing matter covers the new shop, Giggles, Why Not? — which sells see-through lingerie and sexually explicit novelties and videos, which opened at routes 52 and 6 (in Putnam County, NY) in late December, is mere steps away from a church, nursery school and public library.
The retailer is virtually next door to Reed Library, which serves Carmel residents.
“It is not appropriate to have an adult shop next to a library,” library board President Cindy Katz said. “We want more local stores, but not this kind.”
On the other hand, Carmel resident Helenea Caprione, 48, who works in a medical office, said she finds the store very tasteful.
Appropriate?
The only sort of establishment that wouldn’t be appropriate next to a library would be a FBI office or some other apparatus of government inclined to produce a “chilling effect” on free speech.
Re:Appropriate?
I’ve often thought we should partner with the adult bookstore in town–get some grant-funded computers for adult information-seeking needs (nudge nudge wink wink), and put them in the adult store, where they have little booths and a clean-up crew. I think it would solve a lot of problems and make CIPA moot.
Re:Appropriate?
I suppose appropriateness depends more on how the shop presents itself, really. Locate it in a good neighborhood, you’re less likely to get shifty characters. There is an adult store near here, and granted, they don’t put it in the most accessible place, but honestly, if it were next to my library, I wouldn’t mind much. It’s tasteful. It’s well lit. It’s geared toward couples. (I had to go once for business reasons (I worked in public relations)! Honest!)
Not everyone who goes to these places is depraved or a registered sex offender. Now, if they were opening a brothel by the nursery school and church, that would be another issue entirely.
Besides, as libraries, we can’t carry adult books… So people have to be able to get them somewhere in town, right?
Bad neighbors
Something about judging books by their covers comes to mind here. A library where I used to work has a church next door, and a few years ago a member of the clergy at that church was arrested for crossing the state line for a tryst with a “teenager” (who was really a law enforcement officer).