editorial 18 THE COURIER SUN • JANUARY 21, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH ALAN SELTZER STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JENNIFER DECIO, CHERYL GALLAGHER KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA, ALINA SURIEL CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI DEMETRA PLAGAKIS WARREN SUSSMAN CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS STAFF REPORTERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS MANAGER SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 Sales Fax: 718-631-3498 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: editorial@queenscourier.com for advertising e-mail: ads@queenscourier.com Entire Contents Copyright 2015 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE COURIER SUN within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. VIctoria Media Services assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE COURIER SUN and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement. SNAPS QUEENS ANIMALS GRAZING AT QUEENS ZOO / PHOTO BY MICHELLE LONG Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us via our Instagram @queenscourier, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing editorial@queenscourier.com (subject: Queens Snaps). What did you think of the Oscar fi lm nominations? “I didn’t see any of them but I’d like to see ‘Brooklyn,’ ‘Mad Max,’ ‘The Martian’ and ‘Spotlight.’” Breana McGlockling “I really wish Leonardo DiCaprio would win an Oscar, but not for ‘The Revenant.’ He’s done better movies.” Edward Vega “I’ve heard ‘The Revenant’ was really good. I want to see ‘Room,’ too. Not really interested in seeing ‘The Martian’ though. George Papandreou “I’ve only seen ‘Mad Max.’ I liked it but it was half an hour too long.” Nathanael Désulmé BY ERICA SIUDZINSKI “I’m super excited to see ‘Bridge of Spies,’ purely for Mark Rylance. He’s an incredible actor.” Jase Egan street talk “If Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t win, I’m gonna be really upset.” Ivan Tartaro “I haven’t seen any of the nominated fi lms. I’m more of a musician so I’m into the scores.” Janna Kramer “I loved ‘The Revenant.’ I thought the fi lmmaking was revolutionary. It was fi lmed all in natural light!” Christina Hwang Keep the massage parlors honest Their storefronts are often covered with thick curtains or tinted glass, making it nearly impossible for passersby to see in. There are colorful neon signs calling the business a spa, often accompanied by handwritten notices advertising discounts on back and foot rubs. More and more of these types of “spas” have opened up on shopping strips across Queens. Because of the effort taken by the proprietors to veil these businesses in secrecy, people often wonder what’s going on in there — and, particularly, if the spa is offering something more than just a legal rubdown. Sure enough, police have revealed the answer through their own investigations of these “spas,” which revealed that workers inside these establishments offered to perform sex acts on clients. Police inquiries also revealed that many of the spas, and the workers they employ, failed to have proper licensing. Last year, the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood hit a number of illegal massage parlors, arresting individuals for propositioning customers and/or being unlicensed. The precinct even worked to have a few of them closed for good. The NYPD is doing an excellent job keeping watch on the local shopping strips and looking into questionable businesses. Even so, they need additional tools and authority to legitimize these businesses and keep others from reopening. It’s the reason why Assemblyman Mike Miller and state Senator Joseph Addabbo introduced new legislation designed to shed some sunlight on new spas. Their legislative package increases licensing requirements, prohibits proprietors from blocking view of their lobby area and grants the city’s Consumer Affairs Department the authority to institute fi nes against spas for illegal or unlicensed practice. We hope the state legislature, as it gets back into gear for the new session, takes up and swiftly passes this legislative package, and that the governor signs it into law. Queens residents should feel confi dent that new massage parlors in their neighborhood aren’t fronts for X-rated activity. New York, be proud of your values It’s easy to understand why Ted Cruz takes issue with “New York values,” as he did on national television during the latest Republican presidential debate. Those values he eschews are in direct contradiction to his own in many ways. Our values are not superfi cially rooted in political issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, as Cruz would like everyone to believe. New York values — one in the same as Queens values — are rooted in something far greater than politics. How fast Cruz forgets how this city rallied after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when terrorists knocked down our World Trade Center. People from across the fi ve boroughs came together to pick up the pieces beginning that very night — fi refi ghters alongside police offi cers, iron workers, EMTs, electricians, other tradesmen and volunteers. How fast Cruz forgets Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the way Queens residents joined the city in collecting everything it could to help the worst victims of the storm in the Rockaways, Brooklyn and Staten Island. How fast Cruz forgets New York’s history as a mini-America, a beacon of the free world for hundreds of years drawing people from all places across the globe, many of whom live side-by-side in sometimes cramped quarters building a better life for themselves and their families. New York values are rooted in humanity, courage, sacrifi ce, resolve, compassion and patriotism, which is more than we can say about the values of some third-rate politician willing to say and do anything to acquire power.
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