Exotic Shops Are In The Firing Line
As an unfortunate quirk of fate would have it, John Paul II Avenue (which runs right through the heart of the Polish capital) is a high holy place for sex shops, a Polish newspaper pointed out Wednesday.
And while the avenue's residents have repeatedly asked city authorities to intervene and force the shops to move or shut down, Warsaw officials say they have no legal grounds for making such a demand.
"I find it unfortunate that precisely this road offers this type of service in such quantity, but up to now we have found no legal grounds for getting rid of the shops," Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski was quoted by Rzeczpospolita newspaper as saying.
"We're looking for possible solutions," he added.
Rzeczpospolita counted a dozen sex shops in the space of a few hundred meters (yards) on the avenue named after Poland's beloved and respected pope.
Although their line of business is in contradiction with the Vatican's, the sex shops joined the rest of Poland in paying tribute to John Paul II last week, drawing their shutters on Thursday night as hundreds of mourners packed the avenue bearing the pontiff's name and lit candles in memory of the pope.
John Paul II died on April 2.