Wiggles, a longtime thorn in the side of Forest Hills…
By Jennifer Warren
Forest Hills and Rego Park community board members last week voted unanimously to deny a request by Wiggles, an adult nightclub, for a renewal of its cabaret license at a meeting of Community Board 6.
Wiggles, a longtime thorn in the side of Forest Hills and Rego Park residents, is in the process of being purchased by Wabi Sabi Foods I, a commercial group, which as a perspective owner must by law apply for a new cabaret license. While the community board’s 29-0 vote is non-binding and has no legal consequences, it sends a clear message to local elected officials.
“They have a First Amendment right,” said Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) about the establishment where nude dancers regularly perform. “But it should be in a place where children don’t have to pass them and people shopping on an everyday basis don’t have to pass them. They have their place but not in a community.”
Koslowitz and representatives for state Assemblyman Michael Cohen (D-Forest Hills) and state Sen. Daniel Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) said they were concerned that the club at 96-24 Queens Blvd. was close to schools and houses of worship.
The community board’s denial of the club’s application was coincided with a renewed anti-sex shop campaign by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who earlier in his administration had vowed to rid the city of the clubs.
With the advent of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s 60/40 rule, the club, like others in the city, reallocated its floor space so no more than 40 percent of it was dedicated to adult entertainment. Following the new city ordinance, the owners also installed a partition to separate adult and non-adult sections of the club. Because it features full nude dancing, Wiggles is prohibited from serving alcohol.
In the mayor’s latest crackdown, he along with City Councilman Walter McCaffrey (D-Woodside) proposed amendments to the city’s 1995 adult-use zoning regulations, which would effectively close many of the loopholes on square footage that have enabled clubs to remain open.
In the case of topless or nude bars such as Wiggles, the mayor said “the amount of floor space occupied by the adult entertainment is irrelevant to whether the bar or restaurant is an adult use.”
One member of Wabi Sabi Foods I group is Brian DeCaro, a food industry consultant who lives in Connecticut, and while neither he nor his partners attended the board meeting, DeCaro’s attorney, Jeffrey Weinhaus of the Manhattan-based Rosen and Weinhaus firm, spoke on the group’s behalf.
“My client intends to operate the club in a clean and safe manner,” Weinhaus said. He also told board members that the club would continue to operate, but his client expected to renovate the interior.
Weinhaus said to his knowledge the club was in full compliance with current zoning and licensing laws, and if those laws changed, the club would be obligated to comply with the new statutes.
The attorney and his client met with the committee members of the Department of Consumer Affairs and the chairman of the community board. Although those groups opposed having Wiggles in their neighborhood, Weinhaus said “they were comfortable with the understated and clean manner in which the club operated — no neon and no people handing out pamphlets.”
During the public hearing, however, board members did not speak in such tolerant terms of the establishment.
“The new owner is not here, that says something to me,” said community board member Lynn Schulman, who is running for city council. And she argued that the sale was merely “the old ownership selling the establishment to take law enforcement off their backs.”
Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.
