Town of Greenburgh officials and community activists don”™t want massage parlors to rub residents the wrong way.
Proposed legislation that would regulate massage businesses came before the Town Board in a special meeting Jan. 20 and was referred to the Planning Board after a vote.
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said the town has been playing a game of Whac-a-Mole with the massage parlors for years.
“We”™ve closed them down several times,” Feiner said. “They close, and a week later, they reopen with a new name.”
- Yoyo Healing Spa at 135 E. Main St. in Elmsford. Photo by Leif Skodnick
The legislation would require that massage establishments get a special use permit from the town board, as well as go through a licensing process that would include reviews by the chief of police, fire marshal and building inspector. Businesses seeking a license also would be required to list the partners or stockholders in the business, who would have to be fingerprinted and undergo background checks.
Drafted by local attorney and Edgemont Community Council President Bob Bernstein, the proposal closely parallels similar legislation passed in Clarkstown in Rockland County and Farmingdale on Long Island, as well as Greenburgh”™s 1977 cabaret licensing law. Bernstein said the law would help legitimate massage businesses while forcing massage parlors that serve as fronts for the sex trade out of town.
Greenburgh”™s cabaret law was designed to force organized crime out of the bar business during the late 1970s, and Berstein said that law served as a framework for the massage parlor legislation.
“All we”™re doing is changing the focus from cabarets to massage parlors,” said Bernstein, who is an attorney with Eaton & Van Winkle LLP. “Legitimate massage businesses will have no trouble complying. It”™s only the bad guys who will have a problem.”
The “bad guys” Bernstein referred to have drawn complaints from citizens and attention from law enforcement.
“We”™re concerned about the exploitation of the women that work at these establishments,” said Feiner. “These are not the kinds of businesses we want on Central Avenue.”
Classified advertising website Backpage.com”™s Westchester page, which has listings for “body rubs” in its “adult” section, contained advertisements for several Greenburgh massage parlors. In total, the Business Journal found six ads posted on Backpage.com within the 24 hours before press time advertising showers and massage services in Greenburgh.
One ad, for Green Rose Bodywork at 455 Central Park Ave. in Scarsdale, advertised massages and showers for $60 per hour in a “Quite (sic), clean place” by “nice, pretty Korean/Japanese girl.” A phone call to the number listed for Green Rose Bodywork, a Manhattan cellphone, was directed to a voicemail box that had not been set up.
Another, for New Scarsdale Spa, at 390 Central Park Ave. in Scarsdale, claimed “We have young and sexy asian girls ”¦ We offer the best Body Work in town.” Reached by phone, a worker at New Scarsdale Spa said she did not understand a reporter”™s question because of a language barrier.
“I”™m not the owner; I don”™t know,” said an employee at Yoyo Healing Spa at 135 E. Main St. in Elmsford, who only identified herself as “Kim.”
Christopher McNerney, Greenburgh police chief, told the Business Journal there are nine massage parlors operating in Greenburgh.
“We”™ve certainly had incidents of prostitution at some massage parlors,” McNerney said. “We”™ve arrested people at these places for sex acts, as well as practicing massage without a license.”
McNerney said he could not recall the number of arrests made for prostitution at massage parlors in Greenburgh but said investigations by his agency revealed massage parlors were offering sex acts to customers for fees.
“In 2013, we had a large-scale multiagency investigation, involving Homeland Security, the New York State Attorney General”™s office, the Greenburgh police, the Westchester County District Attorney and others,” McNerney said. According to news reports, the investigation resulted in seven massage parlors in Greenburgh being shut down and 19 women being arrested in August 2013, mostly for practicing massage without a license, a felony in New York state.
McNerney said the investigation did not reveal any evidence that the women involved were victims of human trafficking, which is one of Bernstein”™s major concerns.
“There”™s a major problem now with human trafficking in the sex trade, and it revolves around brothels fronting as massage parlors in suburban towns,” Bernstein said. “(The victims) are typically young Asian immigrants that get caught up in human trafficking.”
Bernstein said the massage parlors also present quality-of-life issues to residents and businesses.
“Residents have told me they feel uncomfortable patronizing businesses near these places,” he said. “We want to put a stop to something that is unpleasant to the quality of life in Edgemont and put a stop to human trafficking.”
While he”™s hopeful the legislation he drafted will get passed, Bernstein said he thinks bureaucracy will keep the massage parlors open ”“ for a while, at least.
“It could be months and months before this is passed and implemented,” he said. “The Planning Board is bogged down. It could be three months before this even gets on their agenda.”
