Obscene billboard still in plain sight on Rockaway Turnpike

A community mulls action

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Nov. 14, 2008 / 17 Cheshvan 5769

A loose coalition of community activists, lawmakers and government officials are working together to get an explicit billboard on Rockaway Turnpike taken down. The billboard belongs to a ‘gentleman’s club’ and is part of a new advertising campaign.

Lenore Davis, an estate attorney and the owner of thefivetowns.com, is leading the community effort. She collected more than 50 signatures on a petition against the billboard in less than two days. She maintains that the sign’s location next to, in her words, a family-oriented Orthodox Jewish population, makes its explicitness almost illegal.

“The argument should at least be brought that this billboard is tantamount to saying fire in a movie theatre,” Davis told The Jewish Star.

If the billboard is not removed, Davis said, she would consider other ways to persuade the owner to do so, such as videotaping patrons entering the club and posting the videos on Youtube.

Jeff Toback, who represents the seventh legislative district, said that his office has been waiting for a response from the New York City Buildings Department to examine whether the billboard received initial approval. If the billboard had been approved, Toback said, he would challenge the legality of it in court.

“The first amendment says you have the right to free-speech, but commercial free speech can be regulated,” Toback explained. “The issue for the judge to determine is that [since] commercial speech can be regulated, does this rise to the level that it should be regulated?”

Donovan Richards, the district manager for Councilman James Sanders, said that Sanders was prepared to stage protests in front of the store if the billboard was not taken down. He said that members of Sanders’ staff had already been to the club to locate the owners but were unsuccessful.

He maintained that the fight needed to be “won on the ground” through community action and that any added media attention would help persuade the store to give up the advertising campaign.

“We found a lot of people who attend those places don’t like to be seen,” Richards said.

However, the billboard has been a cause of insight for some.

“Sometimes we need reminders in the comfortable area in the Five Towns that we’re still in galus,” Davis said. “This is G-d’s way of reminding us, especially after Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, that we always have to protect ourselves and keep guard against all the material and disgusting intrusions that want to infiltrate our lives.”

Calls and e-mails to the Platinum Club have not been returned.