NEW YORK – Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani has often claimed that he transformed the stretch of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets in New York from a den of prostitution and adult businesses into a family-oriented tourist destination. A recent report in the Washington Post, however, is calling Giuliani’s claim “at best, an overstatement.”
“In 1987, there were 35 pornographic theaters and shops on just one stretch of 42nd Street. When I left office, there were zero — none,” the Republican presidential candidate told the Family Research Council last year. “The pornographers lost, and they were chased out of Times Square.”
The article points out that the proposed cleanup of 42nd Street was in the works for more than a decade before Giuliani’s term. In 1993, a highly publicized deal allowed Disney to refurbish the New Amsterdam Theatre, beginning the gentrification of the Deuce.
Most of the adult businesses, however, were simply relocated. Marc Eliot, author of the book “Down 42nd Street: Sex, Money, Culture and Politics at the Crossroads of the World,” told The Post: “All they were able to do is move it around the corner. It's a real New York story…They shove it off on the side. If anybody wants it, it's there. That's New York City, and it will always be New York City.”
Giuliani adopted stricter zoning laws in an attempt to rid the city of adult-oriented businesses. The owners of the businesses claimed the new mandates were unconstitutional and challenged Giuliani in court. The city won the right to rezone, but most adult businesses simply found loopholes in the new laws, by adjusting their stock and adapting to what constitutes an "adult" business.
“At most, what he did was, he shuffled the board — he moved most of the adult establishments to different neighborhoods,” Norman Siegel, the former director of The New York Civil Liberties Union, told the Post. “So him saying he cleaned it up — not accurate.”
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