Blue Noses On The Loose Again?

I suppose they always have been.

An item in today's Sacramento Bee about a shop opening in the Sacramento area got me to thinking about similar efforts in the past around here. In the case of Cupid's Love Boutique, the name of which isn't even on the store, some folks aren't happy that the business will be selling, among other things, sex toys and XXX DVDs.

So what's the big deal? I say leave them alone. Then again, I don't live there.
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The most recent situation that comes to mind around here was the opening of T. Great Razooly's Tip Top Club on Humboldt Hill. As many of you know, The Tip Top Club is an "exotic dancing" establishment. For those of you in Arcata, that means it's a strip joint.

The Tip Top Club took over an old restaurant, the name which escapes me right now, just off the freeway across from King Salmon. If memory serves me correct, the building had been vacant for some years prior to Razooly becoming interested in it.

After much broohah, which included Libertarian T. Great Razooly being arrested for opening the business without a permit, Tip Top opened. There have been no problems to date, at least that I'm aware of.

There was an effort by people in the neighborhood to stop Tip Top from opening. I might have been sympathetic to their concerns, except it's not like a business, namely a restaurant, hadn't been in the same building before. It wasn't like a new invasion of their neighborhood.

I was also to learn later on that Tip Top doesn't even have a liquor license. What the point is of having a strip club without a liquor license is, is beyond me. Nonetheless, that's Razooly's business. I would think the place probably attracts less traffic than the restaurant there before it. The signs outside are tasteful enough. What's the problem?

I don't know that there is one, except for some folks that don't approve of certain types of behaviour.

I could see some cause for concern if Razooly was opening a Humboldt branch of The Great Alaskan Bush Company. The Bush Company is in Anchorage, Alaska- a world reknowned strip club which I've had the pleasure of visiting a couple times. A great place to hang out at, even without the girls, the only exception being the cost of liquor there.

But even with the Bush Company, it's pretty tame on the outside. What's the problem?
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I'm not sure it was always that way around here, as I haven't followed it to closely. I do know, when I first moved up here in '73, the building on 5th Street in Eureka that housed the old Co- Op and previously Kacy's Supermarket, used to be a XXX book store, at least I think that's the building it was in. Maybe it was down the street a little further?

The blue noses in Eureka, along with the Eureka City Council, finally got rid of that place. I think they changed the zoning or came up with some ordinance, or some such, to shut it down. I didn't think much of it at the time and, in hindsight, did think the place was pretty tacky: A XXX bookstore with a sign, if memory serves me right, announcing such, on one of the main drags of Eureka.

Maybe no one would have bothered with them if they'd been a little more low key?
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Back around then Eureka also had it's very own Head Shop, Fool's Jools. Anyone remember that one? They sold drug related paraphanelia, among other things, and were on H Street, right across from the Post Office/ Federal Building.

I paid a bit more attention to it's demise, if only because I knew at least one person that worked there. Barry Scarpellino, whose family I worked for at the time, even sang a jingle that ended up on a Fool's Jools radio commercial.

Some in the city weren't happy with Fool's Jools. Seems to me an ordinance was drafted prohibiting businesses that sold drug paraphanelia. Either that, or they chose to enforce some law or ordinance already in existence.

I was kind of irked to see that happen, even at my young age. Why not just leave them alone? They weren't causing any problems.

The Eureka blue noses were having their day back in the '70s.
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I forget what year it was, but there was a big stink some decades ago over the Fortuna Theater. I forget how it happened but the Fortuna Theater became an X Rated theater (did they even have x ratings back then?).

Many residents were outraged. Police ended up raiding the theater and arresting people. Eventually, I forget the details, the X rated Fortuna Theater was closed down, never to be reopened as X rated again. I believe it is open for family entertainment, though, to this day.

One seemingly permanent victory for the blue noses, and I almost can't fault them. Do you really want the only theater in town to be X rated?
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Hard to say if the blue nose's victories in Eureka were long lived, or not.

At least a couple sex shops have opened over the years. One, the Pleasure Center, on 3rd(?) Street, went out of business. It wasn't the blue noses, though, I don't think. I was told they either moved to Arcata, or, the Arcata store that was the main business decided not to bother with the Eureka store anymore.

I'm not sure when the other one opened. Good Relations (is that on 2nd or 3rd Street?) opened in Eureka. It sells sex oriented stuff. I can't help wonder if someone isn't trying to shut them down, although I haven't heard of any such movement.

Maybe the difference is they're fairly low key, despite being right out in the open. If you drive by the place I think you'll agree it's nice and low key with no one shouting sex slogans, or anything else. From what I've seen, it fits right in with Old Town, Eureka.
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I'd like to think that's the key to this whole thing of the sex industries and other such things: If you keep them low key, and not right in people's faces, maybe the blue noses wouldn't get so aroused, but maybe not. That Cupid's Love Boutique, in the Sacramento Area, hasn't even opened yet and they're getting hammered.