41.0°,
Fair Billboard impasse
The sign is legal, authorities say, and unlikely to be removed
By Michael Orbach
Issue of Nov. 21, 2008 / 23 Cheshvan 5758
She's 10 feet tall, not wearing much at all, and as of Tuesday night, despite the combined efforts of community activists, government officials, and local lawmakers to apply pressure, apparently not going anywhere.
'She' is the billboard that for the past month or so has been heralding the Platinum Club on Rockaway Turnpike. It has not been taken town and immediate plans to have it removed have stalled.
"The more first amendment research I do the less optimistic I get," said Legislator Jeff Toback. His original hope was that the billboard, which is on the Rosedale, Queens side of the border, had been put up without permission from the New York City Department of Buildings and could therefore be ordered to be taken down.
Toback has since learned that the Building Dept. only regulates the size of billboards, and not their content. So far as the city is concerned the billboard is permissible. Toback's next option, a legal battle against the club on the grounds of freedom of commercial speech, is a process he is not excited about, though he has assembled a team of lawyers to work on it, he said.
In addition to the billboard itself, two signs with similar images are posted alongside Rockaway Turnpike.
Sheila Selig, a Lawrence resident who said that she has looked into the matter on behalf of a group of women who found the sign offensive, said that she had spoken with the owner of the building, whom she described as "a very fine individual," and whose attorney she said was attempting to find a resolution with the owner of the club. However, she said, the owner cautioned that if the billboard and the signs are legal, which they appear to be, there is not much that can be done to force their removal.
Genaro Morales, who identified himself to The Nassau Herald as a spokesperson for Dominica O'Neill, the owner of the Platinum Club, said that the billboard was protected speech and would not be taken down.
O'Neill, of Yonkers, was identified in the Westchester County Business Journal as a vice president of Casanova Entertainment, which was sued in 2006 by the city of New Rochelle for having a gentleman's club, in violation of that city's zoning ordinances. The club, which was located opposite a Planned Parenthood day care center, lost the lawsuit and was forced to close.
Morales is a former New York City police officer, and a partner in real estate properties in Massachusetts with Selim "Sam" Zherka, according to The Journal News, a Westchester daily newspaper.
Zherka, according to the New York Post on Nov. 5, is the owner of the VIP Club and Cheetah's, two gentleman's clubs in New York City. He is also the publisher of a weekly newspaper, The Westchester Guardian.
Zherka has denied that he is the owner of Casanova Entertainment, the company behind the defunct New Rochelle club, and the company that O'Neill of the Platinum Club has been associated with. The chairman of the Yonkers Republican Committee, John Jacono, claimed last year that Zherka, through Casanova and other companies he owns, was a major supporter of a Democrat candidate for Yonkers mayor.
Five Towns residents seem to be adapting and dealing with the billboard's unwanted presence. Earlier this month the sewer construction on Rockaway Turnpike shifted to an evening schedule as planned, so drivers won’t necessarily be stuck at the Rockaway Turnpike and Brookville Boulevard intersection near the billboard. Some residents say they have taken to using a different route to bypass the sign completely when practical.
Rabbi Hershel Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere calls the billboard offensive to a morally healthy society.
"But just removing the poster is not the solution," he told The Jewish Star. "There are other posters all over the place. Censorship is never a solution. Our kids are exposed all the time when they walk in the street or surf the Internet. The challenge for parents and educators is how to strengthen our kids internally so that they are not affected emotionally or morally by what they see. Parents must set a good personal example in the way they dress and in the way they spend their leisure time. There should be parental controls over Internet use. We must provide each child with the strength and knowledge of how to resist the temptations of our very open society."
