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Freeway porn booming in Iowa cornfields
Staci Hupp
Des Moines Register
Jan. 30, 2004 07:35 AM
NEWTON, Iowa - Freeway porn has become big business across the country.
Miles of cornfields, filling stations and small-town landmarks greet travelers along the interstate highways. So do billboards for nude dancers and novelty shops.
Bored truck drivers pull over. College students and businessmen make special trips. Vacationers stop on a whim. Customers get their kicks in a comfort zone where they don't have to look over their shoulders for familiar faces.
Terry Rutledge ran a steakhouse with a good menu and paltry profits, despite a spot right off Interstate Highway 29 in Hamburg, Iowa, population 1,250. The Lincoln, Neb., native had an epiphany nearly three years ago, when a local bar brought in women who took off their tops.
"I thought if they could do it one night, I could do it every night," said Rutledge, 32.
At that point, Shotgun Geniez traded the steaks and shrimp for skin. A few months ago, the club stopped serving alcohol, freeing dancers to bare it all. Business has been bountiful.
Other owners of adult businesses have followed Rutledge's lead.
Construction crews are building a new strip club at the intersection of Iowa Highway 370 and I-29 in Mills County. The owner moved to Iowa from Nebraska, where strict regulations all but shut down adult entertainment venues.
Corporate-owned adult stores that sell sex toys, X-rated videos and lingerie have opened on the outskirts of Newton and Sioux City, Iowa. It isn't the kind of publicity Iowa communities had hoped for.
Internet pornography was expected to take a bite out of adult businesses. Research shows demand is stronger than ever.
More than 3,600 strip clubs are open across the country. One researcher predicts the number will hit 5,000 by next year.
Industry experts explain why:
? Older generations have shed some of their shame. Younger generations never really had any.
? Married couples and single women have expanded the customer base.
? Some stores have discarded their dark, seedy images in favor of clean, spacious buildings with fun motifs.
Consequently, "people are seeing that they can make money," said Ted McIlvenna, president of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco.
The boost in local tax revenue isn't worth sacrificing small-town dignity and clean interstate highways, critics say. A handful of Iowa counties rang in the new year with new adult-entertainment ordinances. In most cases, the efforts came too late.
The Lion's Den, a national chain, has opened 33 stores at a staggering pace across the Midwest - typically in small towns along interstate highways.
The cash-strapped owner of an antique mall five miles west of Newton sold his property last year to the company. Store owners told Jasper County officials only of their intention to open a retail store.
"They were open before anybody knew what was going on," said Larry Ryan, the county's zoning director.
A month later, Jasper County changed its zoning laws to restrict where adult businesses can open.
Regulations in Mills, Pottawattamie and Fremont counties have a similar ring to them: Dancers must keep some clothing on - and some distance from customers. Adult businesses must stay away from churches, schools and homes.
"We needed to do something, just to have some control," said Fremont County Supervisor Keith Hickey. "You don't want one of those next to your church."
Fremont County's rules don't apply to Shotgun Geniez, which is inside Hamburg city limits. But before dancers went completely nude, undercover officers arrested at least one of them for showing too much skin.
Other offenses have matched those of typical bars - drunken-driving arrests, fights - but the telephone calls most worry Sheriff Steven MacDonald.
The mother of a teenage boy said a dancer flashed him as he took out the garbage at Pizza Hut across the street. A worried wife complained that her husband charged $1,500 to the couple's credit card at Shotgun Geniez.
"The problem is the things that are secondary to that type of establishment, like the potential for drugs, alcohol abuse and just the morals of it," MacDonald said. "I don't know of any wife in this county who would appreciate her husband being in a place like that. It's a temptation I wish we didn't have."
State lawmakers have tired of trying to run out adult entertainment. "The problem you run into is, as long as it's constitutionally protected material, I think there are some limits on what the state, cities and counties can do," said state Sen. Jeffrey Lamberti, a Republican from Ankeny, Iowa.
In Newton, the Lion Den's manager talks about tastefulness and professionalism.
"It's not like the old image of a dirty bookstore," said Jeannie Smith, who gave up a career in law enforcement to join the company.
Even strip clubs could improve the sexual health of townspeople if they'd let them, said McIlvenna, of the human sexuality institute.
"This is just a turn-on, where they can all talk a big game," he said. "It's a safe way to deal with their fantasies."
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0130Sex-Shops-ON.html
Staci Hupp
Des Moines Register
Jan. 30, 2004 07:35 AM
NEWTON, Iowa - Freeway porn has become big business across the country.
Miles of cornfields, filling stations and small-town landmarks greet travelers along the interstate highways. So do billboards for nude dancers and novelty shops.
Bored truck drivers pull over. College students and businessmen make special trips. Vacationers stop on a whim. Customers get their kicks in a comfort zone where they don't have to look over their shoulders for familiar faces.
Terry Rutledge ran a steakhouse with a good menu and paltry profits, despite a spot right off Interstate Highway 29 in Hamburg, Iowa, population 1,250. The Lincoln, Neb., native had an epiphany nearly three years ago, when a local bar brought in women who took off their tops.
"I thought if they could do it one night, I could do it every night," said Rutledge, 32.
At that point, Shotgun Geniez traded the steaks and shrimp for skin. A few months ago, the club stopped serving alcohol, freeing dancers to bare it all. Business has been bountiful.
Other owners of adult businesses have followed Rutledge's lead.
Construction crews are building a new strip club at the intersection of Iowa Highway 370 and I-29 in Mills County. The owner moved to Iowa from Nebraska, where strict regulations all but shut down adult entertainment venues.
Corporate-owned adult stores that sell sex toys, X-rated videos and lingerie have opened on the outskirts of Newton and Sioux City, Iowa. It isn't the kind of publicity Iowa communities had hoped for.
Internet pornography was expected to take a bite out of adult businesses. Research shows demand is stronger than ever.
More than 3,600 strip clubs are open across the country. One researcher predicts the number will hit 5,000 by next year.
Industry experts explain why:
? Older generations have shed some of their shame. Younger generations never really had any.
? Married couples and single women have expanded the customer base.
? Some stores have discarded their dark, seedy images in favor of clean, spacious buildings with fun motifs.
Consequently, "people are seeing that they can make money," said Ted McIlvenna, president of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco.
The boost in local tax revenue isn't worth sacrificing small-town dignity and clean interstate highways, critics say. A handful of Iowa counties rang in the new year with new adult-entertainment ordinances. In most cases, the efforts came too late.
The Lion's Den, a national chain, has opened 33 stores at a staggering pace across the Midwest - typically in small towns along interstate highways.
The cash-strapped owner of an antique mall five miles west of Newton sold his property last year to the company. Store owners told Jasper County officials only of their intention to open a retail store.
"They were open before anybody knew what was going on," said Larry Ryan, the county's zoning director.
A month later, Jasper County changed its zoning laws to restrict where adult businesses can open.
Regulations in Mills, Pottawattamie and Fremont counties have a similar ring to them: Dancers must keep some clothing on - and some distance from customers. Adult businesses must stay away from churches, schools and homes.
"We needed to do something, just to have some control," said Fremont County Supervisor Keith Hickey. "You don't want one of those next to your church."
Fremont County's rules don't apply to Shotgun Geniez, which is inside Hamburg city limits. But before dancers went completely nude, undercover officers arrested at least one of them for showing too much skin.
Other offenses have matched those of typical bars - drunken-driving arrests, fights - but the telephone calls most worry Sheriff Steven MacDonald.
The mother of a teenage boy said a dancer flashed him as he took out the garbage at Pizza Hut across the street. A worried wife complained that her husband charged $1,500 to the couple's credit card at Shotgun Geniez.
"The problem is the things that are secondary to that type of establishment, like the potential for drugs, alcohol abuse and just the morals of it," MacDonald said. "I don't know of any wife in this county who would appreciate her husband being in a place like that. It's a temptation I wish we didn't have."
State lawmakers have tired of trying to run out adult entertainment. "The problem you run into is, as long as it's constitutionally protected material, I think there are some limits on what the state, cities and counties can do," said state Sen. Jeffrey Lamberti, a Republican from Ankeny, Iowa.
In Newton, the Lion Den's manager talks about tastefulness and professionalism.
"It's not like the old image of a dirty bookstore," said Jeannie Smith, who gave up a career in law enforcement to join the company.
Even strip clubs could improve the sexual health of townspeople if they'd let them, said McIlvenna, of the human sexuality institute.
"This is just a turn-on, where they can all talk a big game," he said. "It's a safe way to deal with their fantasies."
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0130Sex-Shops-ON.html
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