The resort has a different look a few months after the city asked the business community to remove vulgar items in storefronts.
Those shirts and merchandise largely have disappeared from displays along Atlantic Avenue.
In August, City Council passed a resolution asking for the voluntary removal of indecent and vulgar items from street-facing displays. The resolution didn’t seek to enforce obscenity standards but to influence change.
“It truly was a village of a lot of different folks — the city, private owners, businesses, kind of peer pressure, if you will — that helped bring this all about,” Councilmember Worth Remick said.
The city also performed a code enforcement sweep first reported by The Virginian-Pilot that looked at issues such as signage and window displays – and drew concerns from some businesses that Remick said the city will address.
Those efforts made a clear difference.
“We want to be a family-friendly beach and people to have a good time,” Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson said. “They’re on holiday. They left home and they’re spending their hard-earned dollars to enjoy themselves, and we want them to be able to do that in a clean, family-friendly manner.”
Wilson said the business community stepped up. She’s been told some landlords are restricting display materials.
“The owners have actually put conditions in place that they have to run a clean shop, so to speak,” Wilson said.
When the city made its request, groups such as the Atlantic Avenue Association and local businesses reached out to retailers.
“I can’t tell you how proud we are of that accomplishment,” said D. Nachnani, president of the Atlantic Avenue Association.
“So there were some dirty T-shirts, and unfortunately they just made our resort less,” he said. “We all worked together to come together and realize that, wow, we can be better.”
Nachnani said much of the change was through conversations.
“I’m hoping it continues into the season, and I’m very optimistic based on the conversations we’ve had,” he said.
Milind Patel, manager of Shore Food Mart, said the business had not displayed those sorts of items because it caters to families, but he could understand why they’re a concern.
“We don’t like to embarrass anyone like that with children,” he said.
Earlier this month, Remick drove the avenue looking for questionable merchandise in the windows and didn’t see any.
“That means so far it’s holding,” he said. “It’s sticking.”
It’s winter, though.
Next is whether it holds up when the tourist season arrives.
“That’s the hope,” Remick said.
