Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412290087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURAL KARPANTY ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BEXLEY, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
People in Bexley can tolerate a little smut. It's grease and filth that some fear.
Neighbors are fighting a proposal to tear down an adult video store for a McDonald's in this well-to-do, tree-lined community.
``We think fast food is equivalent to pornography, nutritionally speaking,'' said Steve Elbert and his wife, Anita Dawson.
They and their two children live just behind Bexley Video, and they prefer looking at its back wall to dealing with the traffic, odors and trash they believe will come with fast food.
``Imagine smelling grease day in, day out,'' Dawson said.
A McDonald's spokeswoman said Tuesday that if the company does move in, it will be a ``caring neighbor.''
This wealthy community of 13,500 is home to the Ohio governor's residence and mansions once owned by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Les Wexner, chairman of the clothing chain The Limited.
Elbert, Dawson and a few others have been fighting the McDonald's since summer, when Bexley's Bill Dargusch announced plans to develop the site for the building's owner.
There is no fast food on Main Street, which is dotted with stately brick and stone buildings. You have to go at least a quarter-mile, across the city line into Columbus, to find a Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The video store takes up part of a white-brick movie theater building of classic 1920s architecture. The theater closed in 1991. Bexley Video opened shortly after that.
Elbert and Dawson say they aren't fighting to keep the adult video store. Actually, they would prefer it be replaced by a business similar to others already downtown, such as the artsy Drexel Theater or the Fourbakers bake shop.
Rather, they say they see McDonald's as a sign of decline for Bexley, where the average household income is $48,125.
But Dargusch, a Bexley resident, sees McDonald's as part of the fabric of America. ``We have a pornography theater, and to replace it with an icon of America is a great thing,'' he said.
by CNB