High court upholds seizure of X-rated theater
The latest round in a nine-year legal battle between an X-rated North Side theater and the city of Pittsburgh goes in Grant Street's favor, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed earlier rulings permitting the city to seize the Garden Theatre.
In a 4-2 opinion released yesterday, the state's highest court said the city Urban Redevelopment Authority did not violate the free-speech rights of the owner when it tried to acquire the porno house in 1997 through eminent domain.
Several neighbors this morning applauded the court's decision, which could shutter the 91-year-old theater unless its owners appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"They need to get rid of it," said Lou Griggs, 42, of the North Side. "I favor them trying to revitalize the area, and that's just one of the eyesores."
Lawyers for the theater had argued that city officials wanted to close the venue because they object to the pornographic nature of the films shown there.
"This had nothing to do with free speech," said Joel Aaronson, a Reed Smith lawyer representing the URA. "This case was about redeveloping the North Side. This is a victory for that neighborhood."
Neither theater owner George Androtsakis nor his lawyer could be reached to comment.
Androtsakis, who also owns adult theaters in New York and Passaic, N.J., refused the URA's $250,000 buy-out offer more than nine years ago as part of a $40 million revitalization plan by then-Mayor Tom Murphy to transform the struggling neighborhood along the western edge of Allegheny General Hospital.
Between 1995-97, the URA bought 46 surrounding buildings. Observers often have cited the continued existence of the X-rated theater as the reason for the continued blight in the North Side.
"I think it tears down the community," said Kendra Harris, 22, a former North Sider who now lives in Beechview but still passes by the Garden Theatre every morning going to work on the North Side. "I've seen pictures of what it used to be and it's not the same at all."
The 850-seat theater once showed first-run, mainstream movies, but switched to the all-adult format in 1972.
"That's not something people want to live around or walk their kids past," Harris said. "When I walked past it the other day, it gave me chills."
And it has recently attracted police attention. A week before Christmas, narcotics and vice detectives raided the theater after getting tips about lewd behavior inside. Six area men were arrested on public decency charges.
Androtsakis has argued that city leaders would quash moviegoers' First Amendment right to see adult films -- and his right to show them -- by closing Pittsburgh's last remaining adult theater. Restrictive zoning laws make it unlikely that he could reopen elsewhere in the city, Androtsakis said.
At least one neighbor doesn't mind the theater's presence. Diana Woods, 20, said she only worries about the theater's clientele at night, when she insists that her fiance escort her down the street.
"It's fine," she said. "Just the guys that come late at night are creepy."
Staff reporters David Conti and Rochelle Hentges contributed to this report. Additional Information:
Timeline
1995 : Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy discloses $40 million 'Federal North' redevelopment plan for three blocks of Federal Street from North Avenue to Sampsonia Way.
May 1997 : City begins condemnation of the X-rated Garden Theatre after owner George Androtsakis refuses $250,000 purchase offer. Androtsakis sues.
April 2002 : Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Alan S. Penkower rules that the city may seize the theater.
June 2002 : Androtsakis appeals to Commonwealth Court.
May 2003 : Commonwealth Court rules 2-1 in the city's favor.
September 2004 : The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, convening in Pittsburgh, hears Androtsakis' appeal.
Dec. 27 : Supreme Court rules that Pittsburgh may seize the theater.
