A dungeon is a place where us kinky types get together and play. Normally, there is no sex, just adults mingling and having a good time. There may be nudity, there will be play going on (mostly flogging and the like, blood play is usually reserved for more intimate settings). Frankly, because of the lack of drugs and alcohol, and only vetted adults getting in, a dungeon makes a better neighbor than a bar. In fact, except for people coming and going at different hours, one would never know there was anything going on in the building.
The Montclair decision to close the only dungeon in the area basically sucks. My understanding of the issue (through some postings on FetLife) is that one of the members of the local kink community got upset at the owners and filed a protest against them, causing the dungeon to be closed. From the NJ.com website:
MONTCLAIR — Montclair might be one of New Jersey’s more progressive communities, but even in a town known for its tolerance, a working fetish “dungeon” — complete with a spanking bench, “interrogation cell” and stocks — doesn’t belong on the busy downtown strip.
So says the township attorney in a decision that has bitterly disappointed Ed and Karen Dougherty, aka “Master Ed” and “slave Duchess,” the owners of Dressing for Pleasure, a Bloomfield Avenue shop that sells fetish clothing and tools of the bondage-and-discipline trade, from flogs and paddles to masks and spiked collars.
So, if you’re of a mind, how about writing them and letting them know how you feel. Frankly, and it is something I hate to admit, it appears that they did not have proper permits. That will doom any business. And now it may be impossible for them to get them after the complaints.
MV
The House of Void 