A crowd that knows it when it sees it

Standing room only at meeting over obscene billboard

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Dec. 5, 2008 / 8 Kislev 5769

Over 100 residents of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway gathered at the White Shul Monday night to decide what to do next about an explicit billboard overlooking Rockaway Turnpike.

Attendees spanned the gamut from yeshiva students to senior citizens, and a handful of non-Jews, as well.

Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback and Queens Councilman Jim Sanders hosted the legislative meeting.

The mood was congenial but with an underlying sense of sustained outrage as many residents expressed fury that the sign was up in the first place.

“There used to be laws about pornography — is that out the window in 2008?” asked one irate person during the Q and A.

Both elected officials have been working to resolve the issue. Councilman Sanders said the billboard offends the nature of the community and asked for a community response.

“Today, this sign, tomorrow, what sign? Where do we draw the line? I think this is as good of a place as any,” Sanders said.

There are four approaches that could be taken, said Legislator Toback, summarized in his words as “negotiate, agitate, demonstrate, [and] litigate.”

Negotiation was slowed by an inability to find the owners of the corporation behind the club. Litigation would involve declaring the billboard a public nuisance and may involve a lengthy legal battle.

“It’s not the kind of neighborhood that we need this stuff,” said Eddie Samuelson of Meadowmere, who said he could see the sign from his backyard.

A deadline was set for two weeks for another meeting to measure progress before pursuing a full-blown legal strategy. Suggestions from the crowd ranged from videotaping patrons for public display on the YouTube website, to positioning cops by the parking lot. Thoughts of agitation apparently were hampered by the fact that no one in the crowd seemed to know what at what time the club opens each day.