San Francisco – A protest was planned for today outside of San Francisco’s old National Guard Armory, not to save the historical site, but to stop the porn there.
Kink.com is making movies there, bondage movies, and some neighbors are not amused.
It’s the latest case of not in my backyard. This time it involves Kink.com, a San Francisco pornographic film company and a group trying to fight it.
Peter Acworth says he now has the perfect place to shoot porn.
Peter Acworth, Kink.com Founder & CEO: “Rooms like this, they’re very old, they’re very dungeony, very dark and they just fit the kind of themes of our movies very well.”
Acworth is the founder and CEO of Kink.com, a website that offers subscribers bondage movies.
His company recently bought the old National Guard Armory on 14th and Mission streets in San Francisco for $14.5 million.
Peter Acworth, Kink.com Founder & CEO: “We’re going to use a third of it for our own productions of Kink.com and we want to move into attracting mainstream movies from L.A. and elsewhere that’s going to produce mainstream movies in this building. We think it’s going to be great for the local economy. Great for the community.”
But in a city famous for its sexual permissiveness, there’s actually a group trying to put a stop to the porn shoots that are now taking place here.
They call themselves the Mission Armory Collective, and they plan to protest in front of the old building today.
Sam Ruiz, Mission Armory Collective: “That is not the appropriate place for Kink.com. It’s in the hub of a residential community, the gateway to the Mission District.”
The Mission Armory Collective, however, faces an uphill fight, especially since the city says kink.com meets zoning requirements.
Kink.com is doing what it can to generate public support. They’ve posted video of community meetings on Youtube, where you can see Acworth addressing residents’ concerns.
Peter Acworth, Kink.com Founder & CEO: “This is not a porn shop. There are no customers that are going to come here. The only way you can get our movies is to download them off the internet. The only thing the neighbors are going to see is in the beginning of the day, a truck full of clothed people in it. At the end of the day, a truck full of clothed people going out, and that will be it.”
The armory is only nine blocks away from where Kink.com has been shooting its movies for the past four years. The company likes this location on 5th and Mission streets, but says it’s become too small to shoot the 50 movies it produces each month.”
And now that Kink.com is expanding in the old armory means that the building is no longer sitting empty like it has been for the past 37 years.
But that still isn’t enough to put some neighbors at ease.
Marc Holcomb, San Francisco Resident: “Just having the thought in my head that I’m right next to this, living right next to this is nasty.”
The protest was scheduled for noon.