Thursday, October 11, 2012

Shutting Down XXX Chelsea

Reader Chris writes in with a report on a flyer circulating around Chelsea calling for the closure of The Blue Store and Rainbow Station, two adult gay shops on 8th Avenue.



Chris writes, "I was walking my dog around on 8th Ave. between 20 and 21 when I saw a bunch of flyers calling for the neighborhood to get the Blue Store and the Rainbow Store closed down – because of children! This is the same corner with the Manhunt ad which had local mommies in a rage."

"This is clearly the work of local mommies who moved to a gay neighborhood and now are trying to de-gay it and completely familify and Disney-fy Chelsea. And these mommies who are so concerned for their children’s safety have 3-dollar-an-hour nannies take care of them most of the time, and then are on their phones texting when they are with their children."

photo from Elvert Barnes' flickr

photo from Senor Blancito's flickr

Chris adds, "Those stores have been there for a good 10 years and nobody complained about children’s safety when it was a bunch of brown and black children in the hood, or children of parents who moved to a gay neighborhood and wanted it to stay that way. And of course if they manage to get them shut down, no one will complain when they are turned into a Subway and a Bank of America."

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

The sender has no evidence to support his assertion that "mommies" are posting these flyers. What if it's a landlord who wants to get out of a lease? What if it's a super-Christian or Muslim stormtrooper? A couple years ago a weird old woman approached me when I was out with my kids in Chelsea. She ranted about porn stores and how they needed to be closed to protect *my* kids. I said she didn't have to worry about *my* kids and besides, in this economy we don't need to be shutting anything down.

Anonymous said...

Good luck. The way it's written it sounds like some nutwack. "24/7 murder", "Noise at night burglary" ??????

Wadjet Eye said...

"24/7 murder"? Really?

Anonymous said...

Though if you hand the guy at Subway a five-spot, you can get a handie in the back room.... ($10 at the blue room)

Anonymous said...

If anything NYC needs porn more than ever before.

Jeremiah Moss said...

that's why i think it's not the new Mommies--they're too sophisticated for this whackjob language.

JAZ said...

This flyer probably wasn't the creation of the New Mommies, but once they look up from their Iphones and catch sight of these flyers, they will no doubt grab the idea for their new cause.

THINK OF THE POOR CHILDREN!!!!

Cameron Knight said...

Probably from a RE developer so that they can build new condos to attract mommies so that these mommies can have Babeland parties

http://www.babeland.com/about/babeland-party-details

or key parties.

Anonymous said...

Even if it's not the New Mommies, I just want to go on record that they are widely hated by pretty much all New Yorkers (new & old) and although we may pass you and your fucking double wide luxury strollers without making any eye contact, we're all thinking the same thing: We hope you and your brat get hit by a bus. Move to fucking Jersey already. You've ruined this town.

Anonymous said...

Has Anita Bryant moved to Chelsea?

Ken Mac said...

anonymous is cracking me up. so true so true...

Marty Wombacher said...

@Anonymous 11:32 AM Ha ha ha! Good one.

onemorefoldedsunset said...

Thank god I had kids a long time ago. Had puny stroller, & even back then was proud to be a misfit around mommy sets. Today's bunch? Aagh.

Elwood D Pennypacker said...

I don't know if this was by the Mommynistas but I will say they don't all stop short on the street to talk into their cell phone. Just yesterday one cut me off from walking on a narrow street to LIGHT A CIGARETTE OVER HER BABY.

Anonymous said...

Pipe down, you hetero-haters. Reader Chris, you are "clearly" nuts. And it's not just the "new Mommies" stuck on their iPhones. Everyone is doing same, not just moms. And if we wanted to raise children in NJ. we would be there, you dingbat. Take your hostility toward anyone who's not like you and go back home. If you're so intolerant, you don't belong here.

Reader Chris has his head up his derriere and a lot of anger that needs controlling.

Gay neighborhood? Chelsea is a neighborhood. It has gays and straights and black and Asians and young hipsters and old pioneering hippies who dared move here in the 70s when it was a dangerous neighborhood…and why do you need to define it as "gay?" Who cares who lives here? This breeder mom has been in Chelsea for 30 years and could give a rat's tuchis about her neighbors' sexuality. Or whom they love. Sit down and shaddup, willya?

$3 an hour nannies? Cute, Chris, cute. Those very same mommies you despise are everywhere, and not the ones who are trying to "completely familify and Disney-fy Chelsea." Don't be so sure that everyone wants it to be that way—most of us don't.

This mom was out there protesting actively (with her children in tow) when the two porn stores opened, by the way. We did plenty of complaining. I really don't remember Chelsea "when it was a bunch of brown and black children in the hood." Maybe I wasn't here when the Native Americans lived here, that's probably the explanation. There were plenty of white kids here back then and there are plenty of nonwhite and Asian kids all over the neighborhood. The Fulton Houses are not filled with middle class white families, Chris. Still the same low-income population.

The truth is, all neighborhoods change (did you notice the Lower East Side is not all Eastern European Jews any more?) and as more wealthy young people move to Manhattan and we allow more high-priced residential construction, we will have more "rich people" changing neighborhoods. We are not the ones putting 7-11s on Eighth Ave. (two, a block apart), or banks or other franchises. Blame the commercial landlords, not us moms.

Calm down, go walk your dog again, and put your anger to rest. Have a nice day! :)

Anonymous said...

I agree about the stupidity of the flyer and the intent, but it's weird for me to read that they're trying to family-fy the neighborhood when I went to school there and most of my friends lived there, there were plenty of families and everything else.It's already been said but the flyer seems like it was written by a whack job.

Anonymous said...

Um, hello, the last sentence is a roster of clubs from Stefon, and obviously the first sentence should read "Let's [get] close". Duh. ;')

Groovybeans said...

Gentrification sucks. Just ask the Latino families who were pushed out of the neighborhood 20 years ago by gay white boys with disposable incomes. An unpleasant and inescapable fact of living in a bustling metropolis is that things change. The language in the flyer, however, doesn't seem to be written by Chelsea mommies, rather I would guess it was penned by a Capitalist-teabagger-Repub-real-estate-goon motivated by some Ayn Rand-ian premise that profit conquers all. If anyone is inspired to counter this, write to Gonzalez, Quinn, and de Blasio, the very names on the offensive flyer, and ask them to help protect the community that voted them into office.

Anonymous said...

At least the gay boys were colorful, unique and interesting as are the hipsters (as annoying as they are) and the beats, the hippies and artists before them all of whom came to NYC with an agenda a purpose and most importantly to be a part of a community and to engage and exchange ideas.

This current onslaught of suburban mommies, frat boys and bankers have no such purpose agenda or sense of community.

Its a land grab and status symbol to be hear. The contribute nothing to a vibrant urban setting whatsoever.

NYC is dead

Anonymous said...

When the Blue store moved in, everyone complained. Not just mommies. Then the commotion died down. But honestly, I'd rather see that shithole salvation army get the boot. Those employees are the biggest assholes on earth, and the place is blindingly ugly. At least the sex shops add a little edge to the neighborhood.