Well, are you a good neighbor? You have a retail business, a controversial one. If you have an adult arcade, you have a really controversial one. If you have a gentlemen's club, you have a really, really controversial one. You can assume that the neighbors would rather that you go out of business and be replaced by a kick-boxing center.
Understand how this works: Your business has neighbors. If you have a new business, you probably have only commercial neighbors, who are very sensitive to what's going on in the neighborhood because bad things in the neighborhood stand to hurt their businesses. If you have a long-standing business that is protected by grandfather status, you likely have residential neighbors, who you can count on to be irked by the very existence of "adult" entertainment of which their children can become aware: "Mommy, what's an exotic novelty?"
Now, if your neighbors, whether commercial or residential, find fault with your garish signs, do you think that they will call you and complain? Not a chance! They will call their city council representative; they will call the police department; they will call the mayor; they will call the city attorney - but they will not call you. It might be a petition, or just a letter. But when they call an elected official, there always is a "staff member" assigned to ingratiate the constituency. If they call the police department, then it is a "complaint" to which there must be a response.
So what is the response? The elected official wants the constituent's vote. So, there is a memo from the mayor, the city attorney or the city council member to the vice squad. And when the boss calls, the servant responds.
Now, someone is mobilized to do something about "the problem." What will they do about it? Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe they will only file a local, misdemeanor obscenity case. If you are in touch with your community standards and careful about inventory, maybe your lawyer can deal with it - at considerable expense. But maybe they will do something more drastic, like attempt to repeal your grandfather status if they can do that. Maybe they will pass an Internal-Revenue-Code-size new ordinance, imposing every regulation on your business that has ever been upheld by any court. Maybe they will bring a nuisance-abatement action against you, an action allowed in many states, that closes your business for a year and makes it a virtual ward of the court indefinitely. Maybe, if you have one, they will take steps to revoke your liquor license. When there is a complaint, what the politician or city worker wants to do in response is to close you down, because that is what is believed to be politically expedient.
So, what should you do? Well, for starters, stand across the street or across the parking lot and look at your business. How does it look? Moreover, how does it look to an eight-year-old? Will the eight-year-old ask Mom what the business is all about? Will the neighboring businesses be offended by your signage? Might your building be overdue for a paint job? Paint is far less costly than lawyers.
Is your business causing "pernicious secondary effects" on the neighborhood that might generate complaints? More important, are there problems in the neighborhood that might be blamed on your business? Zoning laws applicable to adult businesses usually relegate their locations to horrible neighborhoods. If your business is in a neighborhood infested by prostitutes and drug dealers, how does that benefit you? Do you want any of your customers spending money on hookers instead of movies? Or, if used condoms are showing up in the neighborhood, is that really good for your business? Is your business really benefiting from that?
Several possibilities exist. But regardless of the circumstances, the approach isn't much different.
If your business is the cause of the problem, you need to get to work. Have your employees patrol the neighborhood. Get out a bucket of paint. Soften your sign. Make friends with the neighbors. In short, clean up your act.
If people think your business is causing the problems, the response should be no different. The issue is not what's real; the issue is perception.
If there are neighborhood problems that exist independent of your business, you still need to do something about it. Why? Because, if the neighborhood needs cleaning up, your business likely will be either be blamed for the mess, or it will be the first victim of the "clean-up crew."
That is being reactive, and how to do it is sometimes a mystery. For example, assume the neighborhood in which your business is situated has a street-prostitution problem, not at all attributable to you (if it is, you really have a problem). Normally, the reason such a problem exists is because the police do not consider it a priority; it isn't at the top of their list. Why? Maybe it is a primarily industrial area that has little traffic at night when the businesses there are closed, so nobody complains about hookers walking up and down the street. So why is your adult business in such an unsavory location in the first place? Because, of course, it's the only place that the City's Renton ordinance allows.
Now, if you go to the police and complain about the hookers, or whatever the problem might be, there is a reasonably good chance that they will engage in typical, police-type oversimplification: Sex is sex, including the dirty movies. You may therefore get punished for a good-faith attempt to deal with a problem. Maybe the best thing is to engage in a little self-help. What that might be is a function of your local rules. In a few jurisdictions, you can hire off-duty police officers for security. Nothing will get rid of hookers - and their customers - more quickly than a uniformed police officer moseying up and down the street. And assuming this off-duty cop is, for example, a patrol officer, he is not going to bring the vice squad down on the very business that is supplying him with an extra job. A uniformed security guard is a second choice, and that is legal everywhere.
You also may want to enlist the assistance of businesses which are hosts of the problem. Make no mistake, if there are nighttime problems - condoms, litter, or whatever - in the parking lot of shopping center across the street from you, that is your problem, because your business will assuredly be the target of any remedial acts taken by the city. So, go talk to the shopping center operator. Maybe you should send someone out there early every morning and clean up the shopping center's parking lot. If the problem is really acute, volunteer to kick in for the cost of a gated fence around the parking lot.
Now, I already can hear readers saying, "What are you, nuts? Why should I pay for some other guy's fence?" Well, you may or may not want to start by suggesting that he build a fence at his own expense - that depends upon his attitude about your business. If your business has been a constant source of irritation to this neighbor, offering to pay for the fence may save your business.
There are more ways to be proactive. Join the local chamber of commerce (which, incidentally, often is a wonderful source of information about operating your business). Join the neighborhood association - that is, if they will let you in. Neighborhood associations are very often a source of complaints that lead to very expensive problems, sometimes even nuisance-abatement actions. Some operators have gone so far as to periodically send a representative around the neighborhood, asking if there are any problems. One canvasses the entire neighborhood every morning for litter.
If you behave like the operator of a sleazy business, you will be treated accordingly. If you behave like any other, respectable business owner, you might be surprised to find that you are treated like one.
(Clyde DeWitt is a partner in the Los Angeles-based, national law firm of Weston, Garrou & DeWitt. He can be reached through AVN's offices, at his office at 12121 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 900, Los Angeles, CA 90025 or over the Internet at [email protected]. Readers are considered a valuable source of court decisions, legal gossip and information from around the country, all of which is received with interest. Books, pro and con, are encouraged to be submitted for review, but they will not be returned. This column does not constitute legal advice but, rather, serves to inform readers of legal news, developments in cases and editorial comment about legal developments and trends. Readers who believe anything reported in this column might impact them should contact their personal attorneys.)
