Something more than the clothes on the film and video performers is about to come off at Mel's Videocade here.
Come 1 October, a new Honolulu ordinance kicks in, requiring adult video parlors to remove the doors, curtains, or other enclosures of booths where the films are played. The new law also bans more than one person at a time from occupying a booth.
Authorities here say that, particularly in Honolulu's Chinatown, the peep show parlors have become "dens of drug and prostitution activity", according to the Free Speech Coalition. The coalition says streetlight video cameras and more vigorous police activity against drug trafficking have driven the activities indoors.
Mel's Videocade owner Melio Pinzari, who has been in the adult business for several years and owns several adult-oriented businesses, told the coalition he does not apologize for being in the adult entertainment business but neither does he condone drug activity. "I'm in the sex business, not the dope business," he's quoted as saying, adding that he blames the drug business for actually scaring off much of his business clientele.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin says the new law threatens to take even more clientele away from adult businesses like Pinzari's, in light of similar laws in the mainland United States taking as much as 75 percent away from similar businesses.
