Brewer residents feel Boxxxed in City attorney tells opponents adult store is protected by Constitution

BREWER – About 30 people marched in protest Tuesday night against a new store in South Brewer that features X-rated movies, adult toys, lotions and novelties.

Local residents, including parents, ministers and children, marched to a Brewer City Council meeting. Many carried signs protesting the Pandora’s Boxxx shop at 583 South Main St. They were concerned with the porn shop’s location next to a church and its effect on area children.

“Shame On You, City Officials,” one sign stated. Another one boasted the sign was carried by “Maxx – Mothers Against X-Rated Shops.”

For Joel Clement, who lives nearby with his mother, the issue boils down to property value and the effect of an adult video store on their 14-room home. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I used to tell people I’m two doors down from the [Second Street Congregational] church,” Clement told a crowd of 120 people at the City Council meeting. “Now I’m three doors down from the porn store in South Brewer,” he said.

Like many others at the meeting, Clement urged the City Council to find a way to move the adult-entertainment store to a business district along Wilson Street or into an industrial park.

The message of the marchers was clear: The so-called “porn shop” does not belong in their family-oriented neighborhood.

It is unlikely the impassioned speeches will result in a change of course for the City Council. The group is not taking an official stand on the matter and, on the advice of its attorney, is not pursuing legal action to force the business to move.

The packed meeting was orderly for the most part, though one resident threatened to run for City Council to “replace a certain individual who doesn’t belong there.” He apparently didn’t like Councilor Larry Doughty’s defense of the city’s action, or lack thereof, in the matter.

Another biblically inspired resident quoted from Genesis and talked about illicit sex “rotting man’s soul” and said he was “praying” for courage on the part of the City Council to give Pandora’s Boxxx the boot.

City Attorney Joel Dearborn has advised the councilors that they would lose if they battled a lawsuit filed by the owners of Pandora’s Boxxx that alleges First Amendment violations. The lawsuit was filed after the city earlier reneged on giving the business a certificate of occupancy. The certificate eventually was granted and the business opened July 7.

It’s not that Brewer residents don’t recognize the right of a business like Pandora’s Boxxx to exist in Brewer and other places. They just don’t want it in their close-knit neighborhood.

“I’m not suffering from NIMBY [not in my back yard] but from NIMFY – not in my front yard,” said Suzanne Graves-Hall, a mother of three. Hall said she lives in an apartment across the street from the video store. The mother said she is against the blatant signs plastered in the windows of Pandora’s Boxxx and asked if the advertising could be toned down.

“I had to explain to my 9-year-old that they don’t sell snowmobiles or ATVs. These are not the adult toys that they’re talking about,” Graves-Hall told the audience.

Pandora’s Boxxx was not represented at the meeting. Manager Martin Webster said earlier that the controversy was bringing business into the store. “It was a good opening week,” said Webster. “The controversy didn’t hurt.”

The business opened July 7. Webster said the company “absolutely” recognized the right of people to express their opinions on the enterprise.

“We’re still trying to be as discreet as we can and we’re not trying to corrupt the morals of children,” Webster said Tuesday at the store.

Only one of 12 speakers defended the right of Pandora’s Boxxx to operate. He was jeered during his comments, forcing Mayor Gail Kelly to slam the gavel down.

Brewer resident Ed Blush of State Street said there are two stores along Main Street in Brewer that “sell the exact same material. They have lingerie in the window.”

Blush said that, in the interest of fairness, the city should go after all stores selling pornography if they intend to go after Pandora’s Boxxx.

Blush said the business “should be given partial credit. He has employed people to assure access is not gained by those who should not be in there.”

“Put him next to your house then,” an unidentified man yelled.

Breaking with tradition, attorney Dearborn addressed the group. Sexually explicit material is protected by the U.S. Constitution, Dearborn told the crowd.

There has to be a “reasonable area for this type of activity to occur,” lawmakers have determined. Disallowing such business could amount technically to a “chilling effect” on the First Amendment, Dearborn said. The city, in response to a case on Wilson Street a few years ago, established an ordinance disallowing such shops within 1,000 feet of churches, schools, private residences, public parks or establishments with a liquor license. An analysis revealed no existing lots in the city where this type of use could be allowed. “Two or three lots could be created but there was no access to it,” Dearborn said. Changes in time and dynamics in community construction patterns have made the ordinance illegal.

Dearborn said he told the council to seek a compromise in the Pandora’s Boxxx lawsuit.

“The City Council has done nothing but adhere to my advice and to hold their nose,” Dearborn said.

“I’m an attorney for 25 years. If you have criticism of them, then the criticism lies at my feet and my interpretation of the Constitution,” Dearborn said.