“Lover’s Market” is now open.
On January 26, the New York City Police Department shut down more than a dozen massage parlors in a week that were allegedly home to underground brothels along Roosevelt Street in Queens, a notorious red-light district exposed in a series of exclusive reports by The Post. It was announced that.
The next day, at least a dozen leather merchants stood in various storefronts, tempting customers. According to a 27-minute YouTube clip It has the caption “It’s still here!”
This week, the Post once again patrolled Roosevelt Avenue, where a bold sex worker in a furry white jacket and pink dress yelled in earshot of a reporter, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, $100. ” he whispered.
Later that night, several adult-use co-workers were out in 34-degree weather soliciting customers, even as officers manned a mobile command center 200 feet away.
“[Police] If we stop it on Monday, it starts again on Wednesday,” said a 45-year-old clothing store manager who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals.
“Police officers here…have to keep doing their jobs all the time. [addressing prostitution]. It can’t happen just once. ”
Sara Gil, 21, a server at Colombian restaurant La Pequeña, worries that the continued influx of immigrants to the Big Apple is hindering the city’s mission to clean up the sex strip. There is.
“I’m going to have faith [in the city’s efforts]But we have a lot of immigrants coming here, especially from Venezuela,” Gil said, echoing Mayor Adams’ comments in November about the causes of the region’s surge in sex work.
“There will always be prostitution on Roosevelt Street.”
Democratic Rep. Francisco Moya, whose district includes Jackson Heights and Corona, asserted that a long-term plan is underway to address illegal sex trafficking in his district.
“What we are doing here is really creating the beginning of a full-scale crackdown on these establishments,” Moya said, adding that police and federal authorities are conducting “multiple ongoing investigations” into brothels. He claimed to be doing so, but did not provide further details.
“Those who run stores like this, please be careful. We are here to shut you out.”
A New York City Police Department spokeswoman said more than a dozen stores closed during last month’s raids remain subject to court-ordered closures, and anyone who enters them will be arrested and prosecuted.
He added that police are investigating other illegal brothels in the Roosevelt Street area and are considering shutting them down “as soon as possible” under the city’s nuisance laws.
