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Volume XIX • Number 23 • June 21 - 27, 2012 •
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Massage parlor appears to offer ‘happy endings’ By MIAWLING LAM Riverdale may have another recalcitrant massage parlor on its hands. The Riverdale Review has learned that a business trading as Riverdale Spa is placing daily advertisements on the popular classifieds website backpage.com and may be soliciting sexual services. An ad posted on June 18 pitches the establishment’s “unforgettable Asian full body rub,” “royal treatments by real Korean and Japanese” and promise of “sensual FUN.” The posting, which features images of four women in various states of undress, also touts its “luxurious, high class full body rub” and “table shower.” According to Urban Dictionary, an online reference of slang words and phrases, a table shower is defined as a service in which a masseuse bathes customers while they are lying on a table, “first face down then on your back so particular attention can be paid to private parts.” The backpage.com advertisement fails to specify a location or a pricing schedule and simply states that the facility is open daily 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. However, when the Review called the listed number, the woman on the other end stated the establishment was located on the second floor of 3733 Riverdale Avenue. The address provided matches the address of Riverdale Skin
& Body Care, a massage parlor busted for prostitution four months ago. The woman said that for $60, clients are given an hour-long, complete body rub in a private room. When asked how complete the body rub service was, the woman clammed up and remained tightlipped. “Why don’t you come and check it out?” she replied. Undercover police officers from the NYPD’s vice squad nabbed two women at Riverdale Skin & Body for prostitution during a sting operation on February 16. Kim Kisook, 36, was arrested and charged with one count of prostitution, while Eun Lee, 53, was slapped with a charge of permitting prostitution. Authorities must record two prostitution busts in a calendar year to have legal grounds for boarding up a building under the city’s nuisance abatement law. Commanding officer of the 50th Precinct Captain Kevin Burke said he was unsure whether undercover police officers have returned to the premises since February but said a new investigation has been generated as a result of the new advertisements. The latest developments come a month after the 50th Precinct successfully shuttered New Healing Touch on the same grounds. A magistrate ordered the business, located at 4685 Manhattan College Parkway, to shut down after police busted two Queens women on
REMINDER
Tuesday, June 26 is Primary Election Day DEMOCRATS:
Adriano Espaillat
for Congress (13th District)
Eliot Engel
for Congress (16th District)
REPUBLICANS:
Bob Turner for U.S. Senate
Riverdale Skin & Body Care advertises as Riverdale Spa on popular classifieds website backpage.com separate occasions soliciting money in return for sexual services. Yingji Li, 40, was busted and charged with one count of prostitution count during a sting operation on December 22. Ying Al Li, 43, was busted during a second sting on February 29. She was also
arrested and charged with one count of unauthorized practice of a profession and another misdemeanor prostitution count. New Healing Touch, which was closed on May 9, has yet to file an application to reopen. State Senator Jeffrey Klein and
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz have introduced legislation that would allow state regulators to revoke the operating license of a massage parlor if police can rack up three prostitution arrests. Both bills are still being discussed by the various House committees.
City unveils heating oil relief package By MIAWLING LAM Landlords and building owners will be offered more than $100 million in financial sweeteners to help them comply with the city’s controversial heating oil conversion mandate. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the multi-pronged financial assistance package during a press conference in the Eastchester section of The Bronx last Wednesday. He said the funding pool should accelerate the conversion process and help property owners offset the hefty up-front costs associated with switching from heavy heating oils to cleaner fuels. Under the financial package, five major financial institu-
tions—Chase, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Hudson Valley Bank and the Community Preservation Corporation—will commit $90 million in market-rate loans to help landlords with the conversion process. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development will set aside $18 million in low-cost loans for mixed-income residential buildings, while city officials will establish a $5 million loan-loss reserve fund to leverage the money. Hess Corporation, the largest provider of fuel oil in the city, will join in offering customers new incentives to implement the change. As part of a mandatory phaseout of the dirtiest types of heating
oil, all residential buildings are required to switch from No. 6 heating oil to at least No. 4—a cleaner, more expensive oil—by 2015. By 2030, buildings will legally be required to heat with either No. 2 oil or natural gas. To ensure compliance, buildings must replace or convert their boilers and pay for the purchase of chimney sleeves, heating pipes and any costs related to street work. “Summer is the perfect time for buildings to convert from polluting to cleaner heating systems, and the new resources announced…will help them do just that,” Bloomberg told the large crowd, adding that a record Continued on Page 13