Blush

The Blush expansion can proceed; appeal vowed

An Allegheny County judge's decision will allow expansion of a Downtown strip club to move forward over objections of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Pittsburgh Public Schools as they appeal a zoning decision.

Common Pleas Judge Joseph M. James on Thursday denied a request to stay the June decision of the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment that would allow Blush, 135 Ninth St., to expand into a vacant building at the corner of Ninth Street and Penn Avenue. The Pittsburgh School for the Creative and Performing Arts is near the club.

The agencies filed an appeal two weeks ago of the zoning board's decision and wanted James to block any expansion while the appeal made its way through Common Pleas Court.

The appeal is pending. James' decision means Blush can proceed with the expansion for now, but the judge warned that club owner Albert Bortz "builds at risk." If the appeal of the cultural trust and school district is ultimately successful, Bortz's expansion could be dismantled.

Lawyer Jonathan Kamin, who represents Blush, said he was pleased the judge ruled in the club's favor. Kamin said it likely would advance with expansion plans.

"We're disappointed they appealed, and we're disappointed we haven't been able to work anything out. We're expanding 3,000 square feet. That's it. We're not talking about 100,000 square feet," Kamin said. "Adult entertainment has been there since 1961. It's a little disingenuous to say we're hurting the neighborhood. We've agreed to make it as discreet as possible. We've gone above and beyond what's required to be good neighbors."

The 45-page appeal from the cultural trust and school district states the city's board violated zoning laws and ignored evidence in allowing the strip club to expand.

Lawyer Ira Weiss, who represents the school district, believes the expansion of the strip club will cause problems for CAPA. He said the school puts on hundreds of evening performances there throughout the year.

Regulation of blood flow in the skin

Blood flow in the cutaneous resistance vessels and the subcutaneous venous plexus are both neurally and locally regulated. However, there are some important differences. One is, that cutaneous resistance vessels exhibit a basal tone independently of innervation in reaction to passive stretch induced by blood pressure (Rowell. 1974). This intrinsic basal tone is normally absent in cutaneous capacitance vessels .

Along with this basal tone, all resistance vessels in the skin receive a tonic outflow from sympathetic vasoconstrictor fibers. This tonic outflow is inversely associated with body temperature. Vasodilation therefore occurs passively in resistance vessels the vasoconstrictor tone decreases. Furthermore, an active neurogenic vasodilation must be assumed in the human skin. However, it is not clear if this vasodilation is mediated by specific vasodilator nerve fibers or if neuro-humoral effects are involved that are associated with the sympathetic cholinergic activation of sweat glands. Although some experiments lead to the conclusion that sympathetic outflow is involved in facial vasodilation 40 years of research have not clarified the mechanism behind active vasodilation.

Cutaneous veins also are richly innervated with sympathetic vasoconstrictor fibers. The effect of activation of the outflow of these fibers is reduced by local cooling. In addition, cutaneous veins are temporarily reactive to various other stimuli. Each of the following can cause remarkably intense venoconstriction without obvious value to the organism: emotional stimuli, hyperventilation, deep inspiration, and the Valsalva maneuver.

In resistance vessels, increased pressure mainly increases flow per time unit. In the cutaneous venous plexus with its generally slow flow rate, pressure mainly influences volume. Because of its enormous volume variability and its large potential capacity the venous plexus is believed to determine skin color. Since pronounced blushing is also characterized by a deep reddening of the skin, vasodilation of the venous plexus is probably the physical mechanism underlying it. 

Emotional blushing is only visible or apparent in a specific area called the blush region. The area is restricted to the face, ears, neck, and in some rare cases the upper body. 2 main hypotheses to explain this regional restriction have been proposed. One is that vasodilation takes place throughout the entire skin of the body but is only visible in the blush region due to special anatomical structure of that region. The second is that a specific form of vasodilation takes place exclusively in the blush region. It is likely, that a combination of these two factors accounts for blushing.