Sleazy Home Town Ads
By Michael Kaufman
Pick up a copy of the Times Herald-Record (or a host of other daily newspapers around the country) any day of the week and you might see a baker’s dozen or more advertisements for massage parlors and strip clubs. The ads are always towards the back of the paper, nestled among the box scores and horse racing results in the sports section.
There’s an ad in the Record for Jenna’s Gentlemen’s Club in Middletown that boasts, “Hot New Babes Everynight!” Another announces the “Grand Opening” of the New York Spa in Newburgh: “Restore with our Healing Hands of Beneficial Treatments for Body Mind Spirit.” That one includes a photo of a young Asian woman playing the flute. Also in Newburgh is the Hanna Spa, which offers “Ground Floor Discreet Park & Enter.”
There was nothing discreet about the Young Spa, which opened in Pine Island in June and was shut down six weeks later. I knew that one was a goner as soon as I saw their ad in the paper. I was surprised it lasted as long as it did. As reported in the news section of the Times Herald-Record on July 15, “Across the street from a Catholic church and a statue of the Virgin Mary, police say, workers at a new spa on Pulaski Highway offered customers ‘happy endings.’”
“As soon as it opened, police officers realized what it was,” said Warwick police Lt. Thomas Maslanka.
The windows were blacked out, but the place was “anything but discreet,” reported Heather Yakin of the Record. “The front door was locked, with entry by buzzer only. Neighbors saw BMWs and Mercedes — cars out of place in the onion- and sod-farming mecca of Pine Island — there at odd hours. Immediately, people started calling police to complain about the shady business that had opened across from St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church.”
Two people, identified as Myoung O. Kim, 53, of Colorado, and Teck I. Park, 60, of Queens, were each charged with operating an unauthorized practice, a felony; and prostitution, a misdemeanor. How someone from Colorado ended up opening a massage parlor in Pine Island would make an interesting story I think. In any case this was either a setup of the first order or the proprietors are complete idiots.
Meanwhile, the Record continues to accept advertising money from such places, which is what enables them to attract customers. Then it covers the news when the places get busted. As my father used to say, “They’ve got a pretty good racket going there.” In fairness to the Record and the others that accept these kinds of ads, times are tough in the newspaper business. Advertising sales have plummeted in recent years as readers turned to sources like the internet and cable TV, which can deliver information more quickly, if not more accurately.
A month before the bust at Young Spa the Record ran a story by Adam Bosch: “Seven women at two Newburgh massage parlors were charged Thursday with giving massages without a license, a felony under state education law.
“Newburgh Lt. Mike Clancy said the bust was part of an investigation into suspected cocaine sales at the Gold Spa on South Plank Road and Hanna Spa on Route 17K.”
Yes, that is the same Hanna Spa that continues to tout its discreet “park & enter” in the sports section. No drugs were found, but seven Asian women from Queens were arrested and charged with giving massages without a license.
Back in 2007 the paper ran an article by Alexa James about the arrest of six women who worked in massage parlors in Newburgh, New Windsor and Montgomery. The six were charged with failing to produce a license to practice massage in the state of New York, a felony charge regarded by the courts as more serious than prostitution. The women, all undocumented immigrants from Asia, worked at the Gold Spa on South Plank Road, Tokyo Spa on Meadow Hill Road, Ruby Spa on Route 17K in Montgomery, and the A&A Spa in New Windsor.
The Ruby Spa ads have been replaced by ads for Centure Health Center on Route 17K in Montgomery. Tokyo Spa seems to have been reincarnated with the aforementioned “grand opening” of New York Spa. And A&A is operating—and advertising in the Record—from its new location in New Windsor.
The New York Times does not run such advertising. Nor does the Wall Street Journal, which, like the Record, is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
I would rather see the paper assign a couple of the fine reporters who still work there to investigate the glut of massage parlor businesses in the region and shed some light on the exploitation of the foreign-born women they employ. I’d like to know more about the patrons, too….those drivers of BMWs and Mercedes who drive to them in search of “hot babes” and “happy endings.” What do you think?
Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.
Tags: Michael Kaufman
August 19th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
A few years ago I was amused by the predicament of a store that sold sex toys, pornography and other such items on Route 207 near the main gate of Stewart Airport. The place had apparently been ordered to take down some of their sleazy signs and at least try to look respectable. They invested in a large number of tall, upright, evergreen arborvitae shrubs which they planted around the parking lot. The plantings looked great, but the configuration seemed a little strange until I realized the real purpose of the design. The trees conveniently screened the parking lot so that friends and neighbors couldn’t see who was patronizing the store. Unfortunately, the proprietors forgot to water their living screen and most of the shrubs died. I guess now their customers are just letting it all hang out.