Detroit Sex City: Zoning Out Adult Exotic Dancing Clubs
Detroit has been working hard to revive the city and bring residential growth to the downtown area. Millions of dollars have gone into renovating historic buildings, creating new public transportation, reviving the riverfront and building residential lofts in the Central Business District area. Detroit wants to prove that, “the growing population can support and sustain retail and grocery development,” for its current and future residents. New casinos and stadiums have also enhanced the city’s cultural atmosphere while attracting a wave of young professionals. Issues will arise, however, when the city tries to achieve this vision of a “better Detroit” by imposing ordinances and regulations on businesses that it deems problematic to their ideal. In particular, the city of Detroit has targeted the adult entertainment business as an industry they would like to see zoned out.
Legal Issues for Detroit’s Adult Entertainment Industry
The adult entertainment industry has been hit particularly hard by these new city ordinances and regulations. The Detroit City Council has commenced its efforts to phase these businesses out all-together by changing the zoning ordinance in 1999 to preclude new adult entertainment establishments from being opened in the Central Business District. Local laws allow such modifications to zoning regulations because the city of Detroit does not need to wait for an area to deteriorate before applying a zoning remedy. The city may also rely on sociological experiences of other cities in enacting legislation as long as doing so is not completely unreasonable.
The City Planning Commission deemed this phase-out of adult entertainment businesses reasonable because “the B6 zoning district classification in this area may have made sense in the late 1960s when there were still wholesale and freight operations on the east side of the [Central Business District]. The subsequent development of Greektown and Bricktown, however, has rendered B6 inappropriate.” In addition, all zoning ordinances must bear a substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals or general welfare in order to be valid. The city of Detroit seems to think that it is for the good of the general welfare that this new zoning ordinance be enacted.
Many adult entertainment business owners, including the proprietors of exotic dancing strip clubs Déjà Vu and the Zoo Club, believe that various provisions of this ordinance unfairly prevent them from operating a legitimate business enterprise. They have brought suit against the city of Detroit and asked the court to determine that the adult use provisions of the city’s ordinance are unconstitutional. It is also their view that, “such provisions vest a constitutionally defiant discretionary authority in the hands of the city officials, who have no time constraint imposed upon them to evaluate an application in order to render a decision.” The city of Detroit has dragged this case out over several years in order to avoid having to a make a decision that would violate the adult entertainment business owners’ right to engage in free speech under the First Amendment. The court recently decided that the city’s treatment of the plaintiffs in that matter was unconstitutional because of its failure to make a decision on the plaintiff’s application within a reasonable amount of time. Nevertheless, it went on to hold that the city of Detroit’s ordinances are not unconstitutional on their face and are still applicable to all other adult entertainment business owners in the Central Business District. On appeal, the plaintiffs have asked that the city of Detroit be permanently enjoined from enforcing the adult use provisions of the Detroit Zoning Ordinance and that their operation of adult entertainment businesses be identified as a lawful conforming use for zoning purposes. This case is pending and is sure to impact all of Detroit’s adult entertainment businesses currently conflicting with the city’s adult provisions of the zoning ordinance.
Other American Cities’ Regulations and Zoning Ordinances
Detroit is not the first and likely not the last municipality to employ zoning ordinances to phase-out the adult entertainment businesses. City and county governments around the nation are currently enacting the same types of legislation to bring down established adult erotic entertainment businesses. These legislative bodies normally develop an initial ordinance, update an outdated regulation, or attempt to argue for zoning and licensing restrictions in court to accomplish these shut-downs. They may even try to enact laws that prescribe zoning requirements and land use regulations of areas previously zoned for adult entertainment and give the power to a review board to deny a business for lack of “wholesomeness”. Such tactics clearly evince an effort to legislate morality based upon personal opinions of what is “right”. Cities may enact these types of legislation as long as they have a factual basis for their regulations, and plaintiffs can challenge by demonstrating that the government’s evidence does not support the regulations they are seeking to enact.
Not everyone thinks that the adult entertainment business should be phased-out. Organizations such as the First Amendment Lawyers’ Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, National Coalition Against Censorship, Coalition for Free Expression, Free Speech Coalition, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters are all defenders of exotic dancing in the adult entertainment industry.
Conclusion
The city of Detroit wants to grow, shed its negative image and become a desirable place for relocation. Although the city considers tourists to be very important, its attempts are aimed at stimulating population growth within the downtown business area. The general population seems to feel that the adult entertainment industry is a nuisance to their community and a barrier in the way of a “better Detroit”. For adult entertainment business owners, this means that their rights may be compromised and will be continually diminished by adult entertainment provisions to the zoning regulations. It is uncertain as to whether the city of Detroit has gone too far with their zoning ordinances and regulations, but at this point, the city’s efforts have clearly had an effect on the downtown adult entertainment industry’s ability to run businesses going forward.
[thanks to juggernautco and iblsjournal via cc]
Russian Blog Justice: Internet Influencing Politics & Law
The Russian blogosphere became a place of public outcry against the lack of adequate punishment for corrupt government officials and their relatives violating the law. A simple blog search reveals numerous posts criticizing Russian police, senators and governors who disregard any notion of the law and easily avoid any consequences for taking bribes, pursuing illegal business deals or even killing people.
But the public frustration online doesn’t always lead to real-life changes. The recent story of a car crash in one of the Siberian cities and online reaction to the incident illustrate how an improvised online campaign attempts to affect gloomy reality.
On the surface, the story of Anna Shavenkova who ran over two women while driving her Toyota on December 2, 2009 in Irkutsk is nothing new in Russia. Thousands of people are killed in road accidents every month. But the story took a slightly different spin when people found out that Anna is a daughter of Lyudmila Shavenkova, a chairwoman of the election committee in Irkutsk region, who apparently has a lot of influence on the way things are done in that part of the country.
The disturbing video [ENG] of the crash, which keeps being deleted from YouTube, has been shown by some media outlets and, at first, did not originally cause any significant discussion online. Some bloggers pointed out the indifference of people who continued walking as if nothing happened. Some were upset that Anna, the driver, got out of the car and started immediately calling someone (not the ambulance) instead of checking the condition of the victims (one of them died in a hospital several days later).
What really led to the outrage on the blogs is a result of a formal investigation of the crash by the road police in Irkutsk. Anna is allegedly being treated as a witness of the crash although she was the one who drove the car into the sidewalk and hit the by-passers.
The well-known blogger and member of “The Other Russia” oppositional coalition [EN] Marina Litvinovich (aka LJ userabstract2001) commented on it in her blog post [RUS] that quickly attracted thousands of visitors and hundreds of comments:
Многие, наверное, помнят ролик из Иркутска, где камера видеонаблюдения зафиксировала ДТП. Его виновница, Анна Шавенкова, на полной скорости сбившая двух девушек в самом центре Иркутска, вдруг оказалась не виновницей происшествия, а его свидетельницей. Кто является виновником ДТП, суд пока не установил. Вполне вероятно, что виновником окажется автомобиль. А Анна Шавенкова просто так, случайно, оказалась на водительском сидении. Чисто как свидетель.
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] Many remember the video from Irkutsk where a camera captured a car crash. The person who caused it, Anna Shavenkova, hitting two girls in the center of Irkutsk at full speed, suddenly became a witness and not the one responsible for the crash. The court has not yet determined who is responsible. It is possible that the car will be found guilty. And Anna Shavenkova just happened to be in the driver’s seat. Just as a witness.
Litvinovich urged other bloggers to re-post this information online hoping that it would eventually catch the attention of media. Following the advice from a fellow blogger, she even created a “re-post” button at the end of the post making it easier for everyone to spread the information.
Many bloggers responded to this by enthusiastically linking to Litvinovich’s blog (the most popular reply to the post was “I re-posted”) and expressing their deepest concerns with how the local authorities handled the incident.
A good portion of online readers admitted the impotence of law in Russia against people with power and called for concrete actions. Blogger tvn1, for example, wrote [RUS] that one cannot blame a mother who tried to shield her daughter from the punishment. Instead, the blogger drew attention to the people who made it possible for a person to be above the law:
А вот судью и ментов надо мочить жёстко и показательно. Из-за них, взяточников, и стал возможным мажорский беспредел.
Нужно уже брать пример с той-же Греции, Франции т.п. Так за такие дела люди выходят на улицы и пускают в ход силу ломов, коктейлей молотова и прочих подручных средств, этим самым напоминая, что власть – слуга народа а не народ на службе у власти.
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] We should whack the judge and police harshly and indicatively. Because of them, bribe-takers, the lawlessness became possible. We should follow the example of Greece, France, etc. People there take it to the streets and use the force of crowbars, Molotov cocktails and other means reminding the authorities that they are servants of people and not the other way around.
Proposals to “whack” authorities and “take it to the streets” were not uncommon among the bloggers.
Some suggested that the “lawlessness” is the fault of people who elected those authorities. LJ user toytronic wrote [RUS]:
В этой стране власть всегда имела граждан, почитайте историю! Радуйтесь, что в ЖЖ вам пока любезно позволяют чувствовать себя свободными! Вы сами проголосовали за вертикаль власти и парламентское большинство, а получили тотальную коррупцию, полное разложение МВД, цензуру СМИ и парламент состоящий из коррупционных чиновников, на все это мерзко смотреть! У вас была возможность избрать демократическое гражданское общество в конце 90х! Если народ не поумнеет, его ждет новый 37 год!
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] The authorities always “had” people in this country. Read history! You should be glad that you are so far allowed to feel freedom in Livejournal [popular blogging platform in Russia - V.I.]! You were the ones who voted for the vertical of power and the parliament majority and you got total corruption, full decay of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the parliament that consists of corrupted officials. It is sickening to look at! You had an opportunity to choose a democratic society at the end of 90’s! If people don’t get smarter, they will face the year of 1937 [the Great Purges period in Russia - V.I.]!
Another blogger called for active participation in local and regional elections to prevent corrupt politicians from taking power.
Litvinovich’s post is currently among the most popular ones on the Russian blogosphere leading in every rating of the top online entries. It seems that the author achieved the goal to attract attention of many netizens to the issue.
But it is still unclear if the improvised virtual campaign will amount to any results in real life. Litvinovich seems to be convinced that it will change things for the better. Replying to a comment doubting the effectiveness of re-posting, Litvinovich optimistically noted:
Опыт показывает, что простым привлечением внимания моно много добиться – например того, что следствие и суд к проблеме отнесутся по-другому, а не так как сейчас. Если не помоет, будем думать, что еще можно сделать.
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] Experience shows that, by simply attracting attention, one can achieve a lot. For example, the court and further investigation will treat this incident differently and not how they treat it now. If this doesn’t help, we will think of something else we can do.
Google Stops Censoring Chinese Search Engine Results
Google announced that it would cease (well, phase out) censoring the results in google.cn, the Chinese-language version of its famed search engine. It’s a pretty stunning move, both in its fact and in its execution. First, the announcement of “A new approach to China” may appear to have buried the lede. The lion’s share of the post is devoted to describing a series of coordinated attacks on the accounts of human rights activists, including those who use Google:
Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.
It includes a link to the amazing story of GhostNet, discovered by fellow ONI researchers when the Dalai Lama gave them his oddly-acting laptop to examine:
This study reveals the existence and operational reach of a malware-based cyber espionage network that we call GhostNet. Between June 2008 and March 2009 the Information Warfare Monitor conducted an extensive and exhaustive two-phase investigation focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community. The GhostNet system directs infected computers to download a Trojan known as gh0st RAT that allows attackers to gain complete, real-time control. These instances of gh0st RAT are consistently controlled from commercial Internet access accounts located on the island of Hainan, People’s Republic of China.Our investigation reveals that GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specifc fles, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras.
Companies rarely share information about the cyberattacks they experience — conventional wisdom has it that it makes the company appear vulnerable, and drives customers away. Here Google is open about the attacks, while of course assuring readers that it had tightened security as a result. Google then links these attacks to a lessening of enthusiasm for doing business in China. Eliminating censorship in google.cn is only mentioned after that.
Suppose the Chinese government acts as expected and tells Google that it may no longer operate in China. Google.cn might vanish as a domain name, since it’s hosted under the Chinese country-code TLD of .cn, ultimately controllable by the Chinese government. But the search engine found there could of course keep operating from a different location, like cn.google.com. Suppose then that China attempts to filter out traffic to and from that new location — and to and from google.com for good measure, as it has done from time to time, especially before the advent of google.cn and its agreement to censor. (We’ll be watching for such moves at herdict.org, a site where users can report Web blockages.)
What next? My hope, and expectation, is that Google engineers who might have been a bit halfhearted about implementing censorship mandates in google.cn could be full-throttle in coming up with ways for Google to be viewed despite any network interruptions between site and user. There are lots of unexplored options here. They’re unexplored not because they’re infeasible, but because most sites would rather not provoke a government that filters. So they don’t undertake to get information out in ways that might evade blockages. Here, Google would have nothing more to lose, so could pioneer some new approaches. Circumvention of filtering (or other blockages, for that matter) tends to happen on the user side of things, seeking out proxies like the Tor network, or anonymizer.com.
To be sure, many of the larger benefits of operating in China originally cited by Google four years ago — exposing the citizenry to services beyond those locally grown and monitored; engaging them beyond the “China Wide Web” to which some government officials aspire to limit them; and gaining market share that can create momentum and support for later loosening of restrictions — may attenuate. Google.cn is less known and used than, say, the local Baidu search engine, which boasts about 60% market share. That share is about to get even bigger.
But drawing a line is both the right move and a brilliant one. It helps realign Google’s business with its ethos, and masterfully recasts the firm in a place it will feel more comfortable: supporting the free and open dissemination of information rather than metering it out according to undesirable (and capricious) government standards.
[thanks to myuibe and futureoftheinternet via cc]
