If you were eager to break the tedium of waiting out a public health emergency, it would have been hard to top the rumors of a sex shop possibly lining Johnson Ferry Road—our main thoroughfare here in fair East Cobb—that swirled about over the Memorial Day holiday.
My phone lines, inbox and text and social media messaging apps were on fire just as the exact people you’d need to contact to check out the story were disappearing for the long weekend.
I got what I could from publicly available sources, heard from plenty of East Cobbers who were hopping mad and even got an exasperated “what?” from the individual supposedly in the middle of all this.
On Memorial Day, Commissioner Bob Ott, hounded by what he said were more than 500 messages about the subject, cloaked his response to the Tokyo Valentinto rumors in a “Memorial Day Message” subject line.
He said that as long as the business opened as what it indicated—a clothing store—and met code requirements, there was nothing the county could do.
Nor could it do much if it later opened as an adult store, as happened last December in Sandy Springs. Local governments, he added, can’t come back retroactively and change their zoning codes to stop something like this.
When we broke the story on that holiday, it wasn’t all that I wanted that story to be, but it was more than enough to stoke an even bigger fury from some East Cobb citizens.
But do they speak for the entire community? While many of us come here for safe neighborhoods, good schools and a family-oriented way of life, who’s to say there’s not a market for an adult store?
When I started checking reader comments to this story—always a good idea when you’re running a family community news site—I found some intriguing views. Including this little exchange on the East Cobb News Facebook page:
“Perhaps if customers of the store had photos of their cars or their photo taken as they exited the store and the photos were posted on social media it might embarrass them and discourage them from shopping there.”
Rebuffed, in a flash:
“Sure—let’s get Amazon to release what they send to your house, mmmkay?”
“Clutch those pearls, ladies! How many of you read 50 Shades of Grey?”
I checked out some other local social media channels, which certainly are dens of trolling. There’s Nextdoor, which is even more unhinged than Facebook, even though users are required to identify their neighborhood.
An opponent of an adult store asked a simple, age-old question that goes to the classic argument over how to determine community standards:
“What would it add to the community?”
A sampling of the replies:
“Everything!!”
“A great sex life.”
“Bow-chika-bow-wow.”
“Live and let live.”
“Find something better to do with your time.”
“I’m all for it. Why drive all the way down to Fulton and DeKalb county to get your gear? Keep the sales taxes here in Cobb.”
“I might just have to go to the grand opening of this place solely because everyone is acting like this is a 1620s Puritan village whose morals would undoubtedly be destroyed by a store that sells porn and adult toys to adults.”
“It’s a date. I’ll wear my scarlet letter.”
What some East Cobbers may not know is that we’ve had a sex shop in our area for quite a few years now, and seemingly without incident.
No, not the Tokyo Valentino store pictured at the top that opened on Cobb Parkway two years ago, not far from the Big Chicken.
But even closer than that. It’s called Elations, and it’s on Powers Ferry Road near Roswell Road, facing the shopping center where Harry’s Farmers Market once was. It’s also in the city of Marietta and has been there for years. Before that, another adult store was in the same location for a number of years.
Judging by the car traffic when I passed by on Saturday, Elations does a pretty good business. It makes no bones about the adult erotica items it sells, but also prominently promotes CBD items and “smoking accessories,” which as one of my readers pointed out to me, probably keeps it in business.
An East Cobb resident I talked to this week says if something like that comes to Johnson Ferry, it will “spread like the Coronavirus.”
While Elations is in a commercial area that’s been run-down, it’s actually closer to a nearby residential community than 1290 Johnson Ferry Road.
Those homes may not be in the same price range as Princeton Walk, but it’s where people live and are raising families.
Nothing else like Elations has spread in the vicinity. It sits across a parking lot from the Marietta Burger Bar, and Williamson Bros. BBQ and Hoyle’s Kitchen & Bar are nearby.
Another reader who mentioned Elations chimed in thusly:
“If they don’t shop there; it’ll go OUT of business. Pretty straightforward. Maybe stop making up imaginary crises and focus on real things that need to be dealt with.”
To which he got this response:
“I’m not against these stores, I just don’t like them in my neighborhood. It’s a fair opinion.”
Fair enough.
Tokyo Valentino also sells “smoking accessories” at its Marietta store and five others owned by Atlanta adult retail impresario Michael Morrison. Since 1995 he’s had an adult store on Cheshire Bridge Road and Piedmont Road, and he’s battled the city of Atlanta almost as long.
It’s where video rooms and private bedrooms and massage suites can be rented out—on top of an admission charge of $20 minimum (all of his other stores are strictly retail).
When I reached Morrison last week—as he was hiking in Arizona—about an East Cobb store, he said he had no idea what I was referring to. When I asked him about the 1290 Clothing Store application, he said he knew nothing about it.
He’s said elsewhere that business associates may have been working on a “sub project” without his knowledge, and he doesn’t know what may go in the old Mattress Firm space.
That story clearly doesn’t sit well with a lot of East Cobbers. Morrison’s name is on the business incorporation documents. The new owner of the old mattress store building is a Miami entrepreneur who has adult retail business interests. Morrison’s past includes prison time for tax evasion.
His Sandy Springs store also was originally going to be for dancers’ clothing, but now is a Tokyo Valentino store.
Cobb commissioners got an earful about this during the public comment session at their regular meeting Tuesday, but none of them responded. Even to allegations that 1290 Clothing may have gotten its business license in dubious fashion.
When I asked Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce this week if it’s possible the county could invalidate the business license, he said “We’re looking into it.”
A factor for the county also would be whether it would want to get entangled with Morrison, who has a continuing lawsuit against the city of Atlanta and disputes with other local governments.
That might be the biggest headache associated with having an adult store in East Cobb. It would be a new jurisdiction for him to test in the courts, as well as a new retail market.
At the East Cobb SNOBs Facebook page, some were trying to put this into perspective, and just have a little social media fun:
“In a world where men are murdered for their skin color, I’m not going to lose any sleep for having to lie to my kid about what ‘adult toys’ are.”
“Hey at least it will be considered an essential business for the next lockdown.”
“Isn’t Johnson Ferry tacky enough?”
At the EAST COBBER, which was kind enough to link to our story that broke this all out into the open:
“This can’t happen in East Cobb!! They should put in a cute little bakery/coffee shop. That is what we need!!”
“Sounds like some of y’all need a sex shop in the area so you can loosen up a little bit.”
“I smell a rat. Funny how this shop wants to move in (in the middle of a pandemic) *just* as there is a push for East Cobb cityhood. Could this be a ploy to get people to support cityhood, ergo stricter zoning?”
“Sex is healthy. I feel for your partners.”
“Not all of us need a sex shop to be happy with our partners. I feel sad for your partner that you need more.”
You get the drift. As I said, social media invites this sort of thing, although I do think it shows that there’s not unanimous condemnation of an adult store.
Morrison has bigger issues, as he was ordered to jail last week by a DeKalb County judge for contempt of court, in a long-running dispute over his store in Brookhaven.
He’s appealing, as East Cobbers promise to keep an eye out for what goes up at 1290 Johnson Ferry—perhaps chattering about it at their favorite cute little bakery and coffee shop.
This week had far too much excitement for some citizens in East Cobb, but it did jolt us out of what has been a dispiriting lockdown.
We return you now to your regularly scheduled pandemic programming.
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