Protesters: Close illegal porn shop

D.C. residents protested last night outside a downtown video store to call attention to it operating illegally for more than 10 years and the city’s slow response to closing it.

“It’s something that’s been brewing for over a decade,” said Cary Silverman, president of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association. “We’ve decided that the only way to get the attention we need is to have a rally.”

According to city records and court documents, Fun Fair Video — in the 900 block of Fifth Street Northwest — has been operating as a sexually oriented business since 1996, despite not having a license and losing several legal challenges to get one.

Area residents and police say the store attracts drug dealers and prostitutes.

Demetri and Simone Yatrakis, who live a few blocks from the store, said they have seen prostitutes take their customers into the alley behind their home and that they have tried to resolve the problem themselves.

“We put up lights and fences, and they tore the lights down,” Mrs. Yatrakis said. “We put a strobe light up, and they tore that down, too.”

They were joined by about 30 other protesters.

City records show the store’s legal battles also have involved numerous city agencies.

In 1997, the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment denied an application by the store’s ownership, J.M.M. Corp., for a zoning variance that would have allowed the establishment to operate within regulations as a sexually oriented business.

At the time, store representatives said previous owners of a similar store at the site, called D.C. Trading Post, lied on their occupancy license and said the store was not a sexually oriented business.

They said the new owner did not know he was in violation of city regulations when he purchased the business.

Despite later penalties from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, Fun Fair continued to operate. Finally, the store’s certificate of occupancy was revoked in 2002, but that was never enforced. It was not clear yesterday why the revocation was not enforced.

DCRA yesterday was waiting for a written order from the office of Attorney General Linda Singer that would allow the agency to enforce the ruling, said Karyn Robinson, a DCRA spokeswoman.

Melissa Merz, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said her office sent a draft order to the zoning board yesterday that explained the basis for denying J.M.M. Corp.’s appeal of the revocation.

The order can be served once three board members approve it, and would become effective 10 days later, unless zoning officials vote to stay the order.

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