Blog Larry Flynt’s Hollywood Hustler moves in, and suddenly some Uptown residents hate porn shops

Larry Flynt, proud porn magnate and lover of free speech, has plans to open a Hollywood Hustler retail store in Uptown at 2405 Hennepin Ave. S, the space formerly occupied by Twin Cities Green. And, right on cue, the cries of concerned residents have come rushing in, people claiming that Uptown is not the place for such a smutty shop. Meg Tuthill, councilwoman and famed patio-hater, has acknowledged discomfort with the planned porn shop location, but she has also defended it, pointing out the shop’s right to free speech. Because of the way the area is zoned, it’s legal for the shop to sell its wares in the space. With current zoning, only 15 percent of the space can be devoted to the store’s smuttiest material (who’s the lucky person who gets to police this?), and in fact, the store must build a 6-foot-high wall to keep looky-loo locals out of direct line of sight with, say, the dildo selection inside the store.

What is most ridiculous about the controversy is not that some residents are fighting the shop—that’s expected with such a pornographically charged name—but the bigger kicker is the resulting discussion about whether or not such a shop moving onto Hennepin is antithetical to the very nature of what has made the area so popular with young people. It’s not. Fringe shops are part of the reason why people like Uptown. Sure, there are plenty of moneyed homeowners in Uptown, especially as you move closer to Lake Of The Isles and the grand homes reflected in the lake there. But, really, the area is characterized by the open-minded and progressive thought that exists there. You want to be a drunk, 21-year-old expat from the ’burbs? You can be that in Uptown, and you’ll find others just like you. Want to buy a falling-down home, make it beautiful, and shop exclusively at Whole Foods, à la the American dream? You can do that, too.

So what’s really at issue? Why does Hollywood Hustler get the goat of many locals? The problem is not that it’s a porn shop—it’s that it’s the Disneyland of porn shops. In other words, it’s not a local store. There are already local smut shops in Uptown, one of which—Cockpit Project, a gay, leather-centric retailer that peddles everything from chaps to poppers—operates just a block away. There’s also a headshop across Hennepin Ave. from Hustler’s new digs, a store that often sells two-for-one glass pipes in an effort to bolster business. In all, Uptown is home to at least five sex shops, and despite the area’s fleeting image as an alternative, independent part of town—an area where the alt community once gathered to live on the fringe—it seems as though the wealthier residents are not reacting to the smut as much as the Hustler name.

Further south, near the built-up intersection of Hennepin and Lake, you run into the glut of new condos that young people with weird haircuts can’t afford. It makes sense that Hollywood Hustler wants to move into this area; Uptown is still a bit edgy, but it’s also been fogged over by the onslaught of gentrification. It’s Disney, but on the fringe. None of this development is the end of the world—and, really, it's all quite predictable, and probably unstoppable. But those living in the area who think they can fight one porn shop but not another clearly have other motives in mind.

You have to wonder—is the outrage over this sex shop, set to open in a space that has been vacant months, about Larry Flynt’s name and empire, or is it about what’s actually sold in the store? Where is the outrage about Cockpit Project and Smitten Kitten? Are these stores somehow better? Do they sell a different kind of sex? Or is the Hustler part of Hollywood Hustler what the outrage is all about?