Sec. 26-517. - Restrictions on display of certain items in the central business district.
(a) For the purpose of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
Central business district means the area bounded by the Mississippi River, the Pontchartrain Expressway, the middle of Claiborne Avenue, and the middle of Iberville Street.
Souvenirs shall mean items, exclusive of books, magazines or maps, which serve as tokens of remembrance of the city and which bear the name of the city or geographic areas or streets thereof or of events associated with the city including, but not limited to, events such as Mardi Gras or the Sugar Bowl.
T-shirt shall mean any garment or article of clothing, including, but not limited to, t-shirts, sweat shirts, tank tops, shirts or scrub shirts, which is designated or intended generally to be worn on or over the chest and containing any communicative verbiage, graphics, or images imprinted or to be imprinted on the garment or article of clothing, exclusive of a garment manufacturer's mark or logo, exclusive of decorative words and information woven or dyed in the fabric by the manufacturer of the fabric, exclusive of hand stitched, needlework or embroidery, exclusive of tie-dye garments, and exclusive of handpainted or air-brushed garments that contain no communicative verbiage, graphics or images.
Explicit sexual material means:
(1) Any picture, drawing, photograph, motion picture, article of clothing, or other pictorial representation of uncovered human genitals, of human sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, bestiality, masturbation or direct physical stimulation of clothed or unclothed genitals, of torture in the context of a sexual relationship, or any description of, advertisement of or offer to sell such pictorial material where such description or advertisement includes such materials;
(2) Any artificial human penis or vagina or device primarily designed physically to stimulate genitals, or any description, advertisement or offer to sell or distribute such an artificial organ or device where such description or advertisement presents either a pictorial representation or a detailed verbal description of such organ or device or its manner of use; or
(3) Any book, magazine, newspaper or other printed or written material, which is made up in whole or in dominant part of depictions or descriptions of human sexual intercourse, oral copulation, bestiality, sodomy, masturbation or torture in the context of a sexual relationship.
Storefront means as follows:
(1) For a building, the ground floor of which is occupied entirely by one business entity, the term "storefront" means any facade or front of a building or any other face of a building either facing a public place or containing a ground floor window or a ground floor door visible from a public place.
(2) For a building, the ground floor of which is occupied by more than one business entity, the term "storefront" also means the front or any other face of the business entity's individual premises visible from outside the individual premises provided that if more than one business entity occupies the same individual premises, they shall be treated as a single business for the limited purpose of identifying the relevant storefront.
(3) For one business entity that occupies the ground floor of two or more contiguous buildings, the term "storefront" also means the front or any other face either facing a public place or containing a ground floor window or door visible from a public place of all the contiguous buildings occupied by the business entity.
(b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, it shall be unlawful for any person to display or allow to be displayed any of the following items or representations thereof in the central business district on the exterior of or within five feet of the interior of any exterior window or door or within five feet of an open entrance to the establishment if the establishment does not have a door:
(1) T-shirts.
(2) Souvenirs.
(3) Alcoholic beverages.
(4) Tobacco products.
(5) Explicit sexual material, the display of which is prohibited and/or more restrictively regulated by sections 54-256 and 54-259.
(c) The prohibitions contained in this section shall not apply to t-shirts or souvenirs or representations thereof displayed at the rear of a display window with an opaque background or backing at least three feet from the inside of the exterior window or door provided that no more than five items are displayed per storefront. A business entity occupying a corner lot shall be deemed to have two storefronts. A business entity occupying two corner lots shall be deemed to have three storefronts. A business entity occupying an entire square shall be deemed to have four storefronts.
(d) If more restrictive provisions than contained in this section are contained in the comprehensive zoning ordinance or any other ordinance, then the more restrictive provisions shall apply.
(e) The provisions of this section shall apply to all businesses in existence at the time of the adoption of the ordinance from which this section was derived as well as to all businesses coming into existence after the adoption of such ordinance.
(Code 1956, § 11-11.1)
