DULUTH, MN — Friday wasn’t Jim Grandishar’s day. Early in the morning he learned that his adult book store had been targeted by domestic terrorists – and later in the day he learned that his adult book store had been targeted by the Duluth police.Grandishar contacted police at 8:17am on Friday, June 16th to report that that a bomb threat had been stuck in the door of his adult shop with a knife. The note, comprised of letters taken from newspapers or magazines, made it clear that if another man, emergency room physician Eric Ringsred, allowed nude dancers into the old theater that he owns, things would not go well for him.
Ringsred had agreed to a plan proposed by Gradishar, the owner of Wabasha Book, to introduce erotic dancing into his renovated theater. Although Gradishar chose not to read the note, police explained that “It said something like, ‘If you open the NorShor strip club, we will blow you up,’ or something like that.”
To add insult to injury, a vandal sprayed a red X over the Wabasha Book door. Gradishar is confused by the hypocrisy of the gesture.
“I can’t understand how terrorism can do anything good for anybody. Some humans think like jackasses,” he observed. “Violence is not the answer, that’s for sure.”
The news only got worse as the day wore on, however. Duluth police licensing officer Steve Latour informed him that in addition to the threat and the tasteless graffiti, his business was being shut down for zoning violations.
According to Latour, Duluth city ordinances restrict adult bookstores to more than 600 feet from churches, parks, pedestrian plazas, and schools and Wabasha Book was in violation in at least three different directions. Gradishar’s maligned shop is 65.9 feet from the nondenominational On Eagle’s Wing Church and 170.5 feet from the Clayton-Jackson-McGhie Memorial, which qualifies as a pedestrian plaza – and the Hillside Community Church and a youth center is 319 feet from the store.
City Attorney Bryan Brown insists that the closure’s announcement on the same day as the threat and shortly after Gradishar’s introduction of dancers to the NorShor Theater was a mere coincidence and says that they warned the shop owner months ago that there were distance problems involved with the location of Wabasha Book and the September 2005 ordinance. According to Brown, Gradishar had indicated that he would change the contents of his store’s inventory in order to comply.
Ringsred’s idea to turn the downtown theater into an adult entertainment complex is the latest in a series of attempts that managers have made to keep the NorShor Theater alive. Previous efforts to offer live music, films, and even national performers have all failed and Ringsred felt that a more mature product might be the ticket to keeping the building alive and profitable. Along with Gradishar, he hopes to revitalize the elegant building with upscale gentleman’s burlesque entertainment.
“It’s an amazing building,” Gradishar explains. “and it’s a shame to see it empty. And a lot of people say it’s a shame to do what I’m going to do here… I think we can make money and we can keep the doors open and pay the rent and (Ringsred) will be able to keep the building.”
Strip club haters scoff at the idea that the deteriorating building could be converted into anything worth seeing if nudity is involved, but Ringsred believes he can help spur the downtown Renaissance that locals have insisted for years is just around the corner. His vision embraces the sexy “fringe types of entertainment and activities” to be found in cities like Amsterdam, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Paris.
Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson had hoped the city could build an arts and cultural district in the area and worries that an adult establishment would dash those dreams. He insists that the city has long supported Ringsred’s attempts to return the NorShor to its former glory, but those who helped raise money over the years didn’t do so in order “to see it turn into a strip parlor.”
Currently, the city has no strip club ordinances, although a new state law would make it impossible for a downtown club to exist legally.
Even with all of the opposition, including the threats of violence, Gradishar believes both businesses will remain active and vital. “I’m not worried whatsoever about either business,” he says confidently.
