By Chris Fuchs
Everyday, beginning at 4 p.m., the topless dancers of Vibrations trickle down the sidewalk, sometimes wheeling suitcases, other times clasping bags, which store their change of clothes. The patrons soon follow, men clad in suits and ties, whatever their professions.
Mauro, a mother of four, glimpses parts of this procession daily while shuffling in and out of her house to run errands. Notwithstanding the scarce parking, what she observes doesn't bother her in the least.
“The women that work there are always dressed well,” Mauro said one late afternoon, on an indecisive autumn day. “The clientele is not shabby. The only honest thing that is bad is that there is no parking.”
But not everyone sketches the same picture. A woman who lives next door to Vibrations said music booms from the club late into the night. Another woman a few houses down said through a translator that she often awakes in the early morning hours to the sound of blaring horns. And one civic activist from College Point has gone so far as to phone law enforcement officials, requesting that they launch an investigation into how the club operates.
“First of all, when it's that close to residents, I don't think it's the most appealing type of family entertainment,” said Sabina Cardali, head of the College Point Civic/Taxpayers Association. “In other words, if you want to eat lunch or dinner with your daughter or son, you can't go there. I don't need that type of entertainment and I don't think this town does.”
Like many blocks in College Point, 129th Street is a hodgepodge of commercial buildings and houses. The eight houses, all two stories high and mostly wood frame, share a sliver of the block close to 23rd Avenue. Partially denuded trees, their fallen leaves rustling on cue from an occasional breeze, line both sides of this skinny street. And squeezed in between two of the homes is Vibrations, operating out of the basement of a squashed, one-story building.
Vibrations is decidedly a topless bar; most of its patrons frequent it for that reason. But 60 percent of the club is portioned off for something other than adult entertainment – in this case, miniature golf – as the city law requires, the owner said.
In a phone interview, the owner, who goes by “JR” and would not disclose his full name, defended his decision to open his club on 129th Street, saying that the block is commercially zoned. “Houses don't belong on this block,” he said.
The zoning regulations can get pretty blurry in College Point. On 129th Street, part of the block is zoned as residential, but Vibrations lies within a manufacturing zoned tract of the street. Marilyn Bitterman, the district manager of Community Board 7, had to examine the zoning map more than once to confirm the demarcations.
If the entire block were residentially zoned, then a topless club would have to be located at least 500 feet away from that block, said Paul Wein, a spokesman for the city Department of Buildings. This is a moot point for Vibrations, however, because of the zoning of 129th Street.
Two bicycles were marooned in the entranceway of Mauro's house, a sure indication that she has children. In fact, one of her children is 18. Still, she expressed little worry that they might wander into Vibrations, a concern voiced by some community activists but one dismissed by JR.
“You can't just walk into my club,” said JR. “You have to go through two sets of doors, past a security guard and a metal detection.”
