Times Square: Bo Peep Meets Peep Show

NEW YORK - The surest sign of the change in Times Square stands midblock on 42nd Street: a five-story color painting of the Cat in the Hat, towering above a giant neon eye that once marked the entrance to Peep Land.

Here on the raunchy block known as the Deuce, they're making way for the Mouse. Disney is opening a $34 million theater and store, and other developers plan a $220 million hotel, a $30 million Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and a 25-screen movie theater.

But as Times Square evolves from a mecca for kung-fu flicks and live nude revues to a home for Mickey and Minnie, the city is facing a hard lesson in urban Darwinism: Survival of the fittest could include the area's hardiest peep shows.

Despite a new law that would force most of the topless bars and peep shows out of the "Crossroads of the World," joints like the Show World Center, Nimble Video and The Male Box have no intention of moving their quarter-a-pop operations.

A court fight is looming as city officials battle to remove Times Square's past from Times Square's future.

"It's almost like the city is trying to take away our fantasies," said Michael Musto, nightlife columnist for the Village Voice newspaper. "It's a misguided attempt to take away the risky element that is part of what makes New York unique."

Musto and other critics are crying censorship. They argue that Times Square is not vanilla - it's definitely rocky road, and the area's 47 adult-entertainment shops (down from a high of 120 in the 1970s) are part of the milieu.

Ridiculous, says Joe Rose, whose city Planning Commission devised the law passed Nov. 1 to rehabilitate Times Square. "There are people who think (adult businesses) contribute to the city's character, that it's an asset," said Rose. "We don't believe that to be the case."

Times Square appeals to Disney and adult shops for the same reasons. More than 20 million tourists visit each year to sample its eclectic mix of Broadway theaters, B-movie palaces and adult entertainment. Each day, 1.5 million people pass through on their way to work.

The peep shows and strip shops have one year to comply with the new law, which would limit where adults businesses could operate and require them to be separated by two city blocks. The owners are seeking an injunction and plan a battle to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Efforts at zoning out adult establishments failed in the 1970s, although times were different then. This is New York in the '90s, where "quality of life" is the mantra and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani - conservative ex-prosecutor, family man - is leading the chorus.

"The Giuliani administration is trying to impose their morality on the rest of us," complained New York Civil Liberties Union head Norman Siegel, who walks through Times Square each morning to reach his office.

Siegel is betting legal precedent is on his side. There's no question that historical precedent is.

At the turn of the century, high-class Times Square brothels entertained customers ferried by horse-drawn carriages. During the Great Depression, many of the area's 74 legitimate theaters were converted to "grinders," offering round-the-clock screenings of explicit films. Prostitutes proliferated in Times Square during World War II, when servicemen on leave flocked to the area.

Now the city is trying to punish sex businesses by zoning them right out of existence, said Herald Price Fahringer, attorney for the Coalition for Free Expression - a high-falutin' name for a group of 75 adult book stores, theaters and topless bars.

"This is just, `Let's get rid of them, and let's do it any way we can,' " he said.

Rose is confident the city can prove negative "secondary effects" caused by the businesses: crime, prostitution, depressed property values and discouraged investors.

Need proof of the last point? Meet the squeaky-clean folks from Disney.

"Disney made it very clear to the mayor that this was a central concern of theirs," said Rose. John Dreyer, Disney vice president for corporate communications, said only that the new law was "good for the entire street."

The negative-impact claim is based on a study conducted by the Times Square Business Improvement District, or BID - although the BID's own statistics undercut one of its arguments.

While they blame the adult shops for increased crime, the BID says Times Square crime is actually down 42.7 percent in the last two years. On West 42nd Street, anchored at its west end by seven porn shops, crime is down 60 percent.

One thing is certain: Image is just as important to the BID as it is to Disney. On a BID-sponsored daily tour of the area, the guide steers tourists away from the strip of shops near Eighth Avenue. "There's still a little bit of sleaze at the end of the block, but they'll be condemning that soon," the guide says cheerily.

Maybe. But until that happens, the neon-lit path along 42nd Street to Disney's New Amsterdam Theater remains rated X.

"Live girls inside! Check it out!" shouts a pitchman outside the Nugget Adult Center. "Bi, amateur and she-male" videos are available at Nimble Video; next door is the self-explanatory "Live Models Working Their Way Through College" show, with its hot pink awning.

If the city wins its legal fight, a little bit of Disneyland is coming to the heart of Times Square. If its loses, columnist Musto has another suggestion: Bring in more mainstream attractions.

"If 42nd Street becomes the place where `Cats' and the 80th revival of `Hello, Dolly!' are playing," he says, "I'm not sure Show World wants to be there anyway."