hello to all.

From the 60's through to the late 80's 42nd Street in Manhattan was NYC's "red light district".
Prostitutes, XXX video stores and sex shows lined the street and the majority (if not all) of those establishments had "silent partners" - mob guys from all of the 5 families who funded the buisnesses or who had shaken them down.
In the late 1980's, 42nd street was "cleaned up" and these places became a thing of the past.
Is it true that 42nd street was "closed down" simply because after the commission trials the feds had cottoned on to the fact that it was a major artery in the mafia's body of crime?
Or had the city just had enough of that kind of smut?

Albert DeMeo describes some of it in his book and it isnt for the faint hearted! - LOL

The porn trade isnt what it once was, guys dont have to go to a dirty video store anymore - they can simply watch it on the internet nowerdays.
Are the 5 families still involved in porn and what is New Jersey like? - have they moved over the water or are the laws even worse for them there?

It basically started in the early 90's when a group of businesses formed an alliance and set out to improve the area's cleanliness as well as hoping to improve the type of business that would take place in the area. Then in 1994 Rudolph Giuliani was elected Mayor of NYC and he assisted the business group in cleaning up the area once and for all. He helped to drive out all the sex shops, porn theaters, prostitutes, drug dealers, etc. By cleaning up the area he and the business group were able to attract more upscale business such as The Disney Store, Toys R Us and Virgin Records just to name a few.

The persistence and zeal of then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani helped the business alliance group finally accomplish what they originally had set out to do a few years earlier ---CLEAN UP TIMES SQUARE.

PRE RUDY GIULIANI




POST RUDY GIULIANI

Yeah, it was basically part of the Giuliani administration's reforms in the 90's that did that. I've read that the mob made a lot of money on the sale of the real estate in Times Square though. By that point, the porn business was changing anyway. The mob controlled a good chunk of the industry in the past because it was much less accepted in society and there were fewer production and distribution companies. There was a time where, if somebody wanted to watch that stuff, they had to go to a porn theater, porn movie arcade, or buy it on 8mm or whatever. But the market had become diluted through the introduction of video cassette in the 80's. Now movies could be mass produced more easily and a lot of others got into the business. Movies that once sold for $100 were now selling for $4.99 The internet would change it even more in the 90's, making porn even more accessible and often free.

There is still some mob involvement in the porn industry, whether it be through smaller distributors or shaking down retail outlets. But it's mostly main stream big business now run by legitimate corporations. In other words, like prostitution before it, porn as become largely passe for the mob. When it comes to the sex business, the big money maker for the mob continues to be strip clubs.

So it was the early 90's not the late 80's the change happened.
Thanks guys.

42nd street would have once been an area to avoid for people with their families but now its a thriving area.
Did New Jersey follow suit? - I think some wiseguys had porn intrests there

As IvyLeague stated, strip clubs continue to be a big moneymaker for the mob, and that is especially true here in NJ. While inner cities in NJ had their red light districts, nothing came close to resembling Times Square in it s hey day.....so there was never a real overhaul needed to clean any particular area up.