The Michigan Daily-Thursday, May 29, 1980-Page 3
Bookstore ordered closed
BY MITCH STUART
Opponents of an adult bookstore
located on N. Fourth Ave. won a tem-
porary injunction yesterday that bars
the store from selling pornographic
literature.
Washtenaw County Circuit Court
Judge Henry Conlin handed down the
injunction yesterday after a three-week
delay that had some local merchants
fuming.
MEMBERS OF the ad hoc North
Fourth Avenue Coalition have been
trying to shut down the Danish News
Co. since early April.
Bookstore spokesmen have admitted
their store violates a city zoning or-
dinance, but say they intend to
challenge the constitutionality of the
ordinance.
Yesterday's temporary injunction
was intended to keep the bookstore
closed while that issue is decided in
court, and a permanent injunction is
sought. But yesterday' afternoon the
store was still open and selling por-
nographic material.
BOOKSTORE spokesmen said they
intended to comply with the judge's or-
der by removing all the "offensive"
material in the store, but as of 5 p.m.,
the walls were still lined with adult
magazines and sexual paraphernalia
and showcases were still filled with X-
rated movies.
City Attorney Bruce Laidlaw said he
will send his chief enforcement officer
to the bookstore today to check com-
pliance with the court's order. If the
store is still operating, Laidlaw said, he
will seek a contempt citation from the
court. That citation should be obtained
the same day, he said.
The city attorney's powers of enfor-
cement do not include padlocking the
store - that would take a contempt
citation, which could also result in the
jailing of the store's owners.
Although bookstore spokesmen say
the city zoning ordinance violates their
first amendment rights, some com-
munity members disagree.
"I don't see it as a first amendment
issue. It's a zoning issue," said Amy
Coha, Women's Crisis Center manager.
The Crisis Center is located directly
above the bookstore.
"I think it's really dangerous to take
as sacred a right as free speech and use
it to further one's economic status,"
said Mary Franklin, a worker at Bread
and Roses, affiliated with the Crisis
Center.
Laidlaw said he may have to seek an
amendment to the injunction to ban
pornographic films as well as printed
matter, since films were not singled out
in yesterday's injunction.
Council passes
budget; slashes
property taxes
15 per cent
By ELAINE RIDEOUT
Ann Arbor City Council last night
unanimously passed a $44.3 million
1980-81 budget which will provide
nearly a 15 per cent reduction in
property taxbillsfor residents:
Incorporated in the budget is a 2.2
milltax cut.
"ACCORDING TO my figures," said
Councilwoman Leslie Morris (D-
Second Ward), "the budget represents
a net reduction of $517,800 from the city
administrator's proposed budget of
April 14."
But Morris chided council for taking
credit for reducing taxes where no
credit is due. Because voters didn't get
the shredder they voted for, she said,
the city has to give back money raised
for it.
ieather than directly refunding the
surplus money that was collected, the
city will roll back taxes to in part com-
pensate taxpayers for the services paid
for but not received, Morris explained.
COUNCIL MADE reductions in the
city administrator's budget which in-
cluded an $80,000 deletion of a fire truck
and $27,000 cut in overtime pay in the
police department. According to City
Administrator Terry Sprenkel, the fire
department cut would "push back the
acquisition of a replacement truck one
year." Mayor Louis Belcher suggested
that further cuts "in police overtime
are possible for the future. We'd like
to get the University to pay part of the
overtime during football weekends," he
said.
In other areas, council eliminated
funding for a new technician position in
the combined Personnel/Human Rights
Department, repairs to the city hall
promenade deck, and deleted all fun-
ding of the Veterans Cooling tower.
Despite unified Democrataic op-
position, council also approved
reducing the budget's contingency
allowance to $25,000-down $75,000
from the administrator's $100,000
recommendation. Belcher recommen-
ded that any unexpected surpluses the
city comes up with in the future should
be moved intothe contingency fund
before being allocated to a specific
area.
The emergency warning system
allocation was reduced by 50 per cent,
pushing forward by another year com-
pletion of the system.
Council agreed unanimously to in-
crease fees and rentals at Veteran's ice
areana, thereby reducing city subsidy.
Taxpayers will also begin paying more
for building permits, housing inspec-
tions, and street repairs. "Repairs are
not paying for themselves," Sprenkel
said. Initial costa of building permits
will not change, he explained, because
as the cost of construction goes up, the
cost of building permits goes up also.
Council approved two expenditure in-
cresesttotaling $16,500 which restore
half the money funding the city
historian and and information'side
position in the City Administrator's of-
f .
Daily Photo by DAVID HARRIS
DEMONSTRATORS AT YESTERDAY'S "peace vigil" sponsored by the
Washtenaw Committee Against Registration and the Draft and the Public
Interest Research Group in Michigan march in front of the Federal Buidling
downtown.
Peacevig.i staged
against registration
By SUE INGLIS
and BONNIE JURAN -
More than 100 passersby stopped
throughout the day yesterday to par-
ticipate in a "peace vigil" sponsored by
the Washtenaw Committee Against
Registration and the Draft and the
Public Interest Research Group in
Michigan.
The vigil, organized in response to the
upcoming Senate debate on draft
registration, is to end this evening.
AT NOON yesterday, nearly 20
people picketed in front of the Federal
Building downtown. Following that
demonstration, a number of speakers
voiced their opposition to the
registration bill.
Ann Arbor City Councilman Ken Lat-
ta said the government justifies the
draft by saying it will give people "an
equal chance to go (to war)." But, Lat-
ta continued, any draft process is
"inherently flawed" because it places a
"disproportionate burden on the poor."
Ann Arbor School Board member
John Powell, noting the military ap-
peals to young people by assuring them
they will visit exotic places if they
enlist, suggest "visiting exotic places
such as the ghetto" to see how money
being poured into military budgets
could be used to provide jobs for the
poor.
LATER YESTERDAY afternoon
during a second group of scheduled
speeches, mathematics Prof. Art Sch-
wartz told an audience of about 45
people that "we must do everything we
possibly can to stop this senseless mar-
ch into World War III." Schwartz added
See REGISTRATION, Page 6