By bryan schwartzman

The music is blasting and the lights are dim; a lone customer rubs his hands together anxiously waiting for the first girl to take the stage. When she finally does she is wearing a top, perhaps to appease city authorities before the much anticipated crackdown on strip clubs. However, a closer look reveals merely a slight g-string separating the dancer from total bottomlessness.

Monday evenings around dinnertime are usually slow for "Naked City," a topless and often bottomless club on Queens Boulevard in Woodside.

Tribune Photo By Liz Goff

"Wiggles" and "Naked City" two establishments on Queens Boulevard which have drawn fire from the community and city council members.

Tribune Photo By Bryan Schwartzman

However, this was no ordinary Monday evening, as "Naked City" and clubs like it across Queens may soon be defunct. Although appearances suggested business as usual, there was a certain hint of gloom in the employees and the customers that the end may soon be near.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s proposed crackdown on sex shops will have a significant impact on Queens, if it goes ahead as planned.On Tuesday, July 22, a federal appeals court denied an effort by adult businesses to stop the city crackdown. This left an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as the only way to stop the city’s pending action.

Walter McCaffrey (D-Astoria), the City Councilman who was instrumental in the fight for a zoning ordinance on sex shops, said that of the 41 business in Queens which could be described as sex shops, 31 are in violation of the ordinance and could be closed if the court allows the mayor to act on his threats. The ordinance states that a sex shop cannot do business within 500 feet of schools, residences, houses of worship, or each other.

Back in 1991 a Woodside resident complained to McCaffrey that she was blocked in her driveway by automobiles surrounding "Naked City" and could not take her sick husband to the hospital. The woman has since moved to Florida but McCaffrey is still in the fight to close "Naked City" and shops like it.

The employees, patrons, and lawyers for "Naked City" obviously disagree.

"This is how Nazi Germany got started, taking away one thing at a time," said a club employee.

He said the city has done all it can to make life difficult for the club; including a $2,000 fine for an ash tray in a no smoking room.

"The people in the neighborhood like us," he said.

Another employee said he is afraid he will not have a job to come to, and he is worried about what will happen to the dancers.

"Some [of the dancers] have kids, they don’t know how to work a regular job," he said. "Some may go into prostitution, the ‘better looking ones’ may find other dancing jobs. I don’t know what we’re planing to do, maybe we’ll go bikini. But who will actually pay to see that?"

Uncertainty loomed along Queens Boulevard which is home to several adult entertainment centers and X-rated video stores.

The employees of "XXX Video" at 98-35 Queens Boulevard have said the community has never complained or protested against them, and wonder why their job is in jeopardy.

"We don’t have any more information than anybody else, only the owner is in contact with the lawyer," an employee said.

Managers of the nude dance clubs Goldfingers and Wiggles declined to speak with the Tribune, explaining that the matter was in the hands of their lawyers.

It is a legal waiting game.

The Supreme Court has allowed zoning ordinances as long as they are not too broad and do not totally prohibit the existence of the business.

Lawyers for the sex shops have argued that these criteria are too restrictive and therefore unconstitutional, but so far this strategy has been unsuccessful. The case has gone through state and federal courts, and in June the Second Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city and upheld the ordinance.

Now the same court has rejected an attempt to delay the crackdown.

The United States Supreme Court is the last shot for the shops to have the ordinance declared unconstitutional. At press time, the shops’ lawyers had made an emergency motion to the Supreme Court seeking to block enforcement of the ordinance.

At press time, the court had not ruled on the motion.

Even though much of the attention has been focused on city hall, the battle over sex shops is very much a Queens issue involving Queens politicians and civic groups. Councilman McCaffrey waged a war against sex shops almost single-handedly until 1993 when Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) led a successful protest against Runway 69, a club which sat right on Austin Street near Continental Avenue. Since then the Council and the state Assembly, with the support of community civic associations, have staged similar protests. But while these protests have often generated publicity, they have rarely resulted in the closing of business.

John Sabini (D-Jackson Heights) said there are many businesses which may be effected in his district including "Goldfingers" in Rego Park and "Nickels" on Queens Boulevard.

"What we have experienced in the last seven years is an influx of businesses that used to occupy Times Square to major roads like Queens, Northern, and Astoria Boulevards," said Sabini. "The only problem is that these are near residential areas."

For years Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis) has tried to pressure a place called Ecsxxxtasy on Jamaica Avenue. Along with groups like The Queens Village Civic Association and the Queens Braddock Civic Association, Leffler staged a 17-month protest against Ecsxxxtasy, but the business remains open.

Leffler said although the courts have ruled against the shops, "the game is not over until the fat lady sings."

Arthur Rojas, the former president of The Queens Village Civic Association said, "We knew this would be a war of attrition, but we are confident there will be ultimate victory."

"This approach [of the Zoning Ordinance] will take away these enterprises from areas with families and young children," Rojas said.

Robert Harris, President of the West Cunningham Park Civic Association Inc. described the fight to rid residential neighborhoods of sex clubs as "not a life or death issue, but a quality of life issue."

It seems that the tides have turned and that many of the Queens sex shops are on the ropes.

With the Zoning Ordinance threatening to close many Queens businesses, owners are faced with three options: closing, changing their establishment in order to stay open, or moving elsewhere. But where in Queens will they go?

Industrial areas and highly commercial districts like Queens Plaza in Long Island City, along with certain areas of College Point, Maspeth, and areas surrounding Kennedy Airport are places where businesses may relocate. Will this lead to a concentration of X-rated businesses in these areas?

"There will be no red light districts" said Adam Faulk a spokesperson for McCaffrey.

Faulk said the clause preventing clubs from being within 500 feet of each other will prevent a concentration from occurring.

Will this make a select few X-rated shops more powerful and charge higher prices? Those opposing their existence in residential neighborhoods did not seem concerned.

"We’re interested in improving the quality of life in a residential neighborhood," Faulk said.