Shut massage parlor, barbershop

Saturday, January 05, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A massage parlor with a history of prostitution arrests, and yet another barbershop, were shut down Thursday as part of Jersey City's ongoing crackdown on quality of life issues, which is being executed along with the state Attorney General's Office, officials said.

Based on complaints from residents, inspectors of the Mayor's Task Force descended on Future Cut'z Unisex Salon, on Monticello Avenue at Emory Street, and the massage parlor, on Kennedy Boulevard and Sip Avenue, and shut both down, said Mark Redfield, Task Force chairman.

"The massage parlor, this was a source of numerous complaints from the neighborhood, and there were countless 911 calls in the last 90 days," said Redfield.

Last month, 25 barbershops were inspected and 14 were closed by the Task Force, which is made up of fire, building, housing, zoning and health inspectors who respond with police and officials from the Attorney General's Office, Public Service Electric & Gas and United Water, Redfield said.

Future Cut'z was cited for fire and housing code violations, operating without proper licenses and sanitation issues, including hair-cutting tools with hair residue on them, Boor said.

The proprietor, Dondi Jenkins, was also charged with having outstanding parking tickets and PSE&G shut off the electricity because he was behind on his bill, Redfield said.

At the massage parlor, inspectors issued more than 40 housing and fire code violations, cited the business for running an illegal spa, and tacked on more summonses when an illegal rooming house was found on the second floor, Boor said.

Citations were issued to the massage parlor manager, Yufea Huang, and the building owners, Nassif and Nabila Banoot, Chief Health Inspector H. James Boor said.

The barbershops closed last month remain closed.

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Well, I agree. Even if the real reason for shutting the barber shops down was drugs, why did they shut down the barber shops instead of the open air drug distribution points?

If I had my druthers, I'd rather have drug-selling barber shops than open-air drug markets. Apparently, there was some huge coke distribution barber shop two blocks from my house, and I never even noticed it till the Jersey Journal covered a bust there.

What a wanker - using the 'quality of life' card.

'barbershop' issues wouldn't even make my top 10 'quality of life' crime issues - I doubt if it would be with anyone else's on JClist or the community's.

It ranks as stupid as using those City Hall CCTV cameras watching over a public trash can and calling that a 'quality of life' crime / issue.

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C/S

I think the previous business at Sony's spot on Palisade near Franklin had issues with leaks or flooding. However, I did wonder if there were other reasons for Sony's place being shut down.

Although the "d" word was not used in conjuinction with this; social clubs are gathering places for criminals. I don't know if this is true, now, but the social clubs in Hoboken were frequented by the Mafia. As someone who lives on Palisade near Franklin, I know drugs are a problem in this neighborhood. Still, I know Sony from Total Fitness Gym on the Blvd, & 6th Street and he was always down on "thugs".

No one ever said drugs, just social clubs/barber shops. Come on people, this is ridiculous, so many bigger problems here in town, in this city. Barber shops? I don't know, it's better than eating doughnuts I suppose. Cheers toward the new year! לחיים

It's hard to believe that all 14 of these barbershops were selling drugs. It's possible that the "Quality of Life Issues" thing was a cover for warrantless drug searches. But then why were all 14 closed?

This reminds me of the Dave Chappelle episode in which he gently explains to naive white folks like me that certain barber shops are places where people sell drugs.

From now on, these people will have no choice but to gather at the Carnegie Hall.
Can they also close the innumerable nail polishing shops? I think that those places also substitute social clubs: women there are talking to each other!

i wonder if sonny's (on palisade and frankiln) was closed for the same reason? there was a sign on their window on christmas eve, but im not sure why they were temporarily closed

Perhaps looking for the next 70k drug bust?

This sounds like a load of b.s. to me.

City cuts business at 14 'problem' barbershops

Thursday, December 27, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City's Quality of Life Task Force has shut down 14 city barbershops in the past three weeks, citing complaints from neighbors of loitering, loud music and other quality-of-life issues, officials said.

"I am glad to see that cooperation between our Quality of Life Task Force and the Attorney General's Office resulted in the closure of problem businesses that are impacting the day-to-day lives of our residents," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said.

The inspections of more than 25 barbershops were triggered by complaints to city police, the task force and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, said Mark Redfield, chairman of the task force and assistant director of housing code enforcement.

"These closures send a strong message to any other barbershops where individuals are operating without the proper licensing or in violation of health and fire codes," the mayor said.

On Thursday, the city shuttered Joe's Barbershop at 159 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Platinum Cuts at 410 King Drive, an unnamed barber shop at 732 West Side Ave., V.I.P. Barbershop at 755 Ocean Ave., and Curls to Kuts at 99 Ocean Ave., officials said. Nine other barbershops were closed within the past two weeks and a total of 25 cited for various violations.

Someone was cutting hair inside the V.I.P. Barbershop on Friday, but the lights abruptly went out when a photographer from The Jersey Journal approached.

During the inspections, the Task Force found no hot water at a number of the locations, unsanitary conditions and unlicensed barbers, as well as ceilings in danger of collapsing or other safety violations. Summonses were issued for the five barbershops that were closed, and the operators are expected to appear in Jersey City Municipal Court on Jan. 16.

Not everyone was happy about the closures.

"Closing down independent business like this will foster resentment and disdain for the government," Greenville resident Kenneth Holmes said. "The government is supposed to be helping the people in the inner city. It's people trying to make an honest living."

Henry Simmons, of Joe's Barbershop, said he doesn't mind inspections, or requiring business owners to make repairs. But he didn't like the way inspectors conducted themselves.

"They came with the police and pretty much barged in and wanted to look around without bringing proper paperwork or bothering to talk to the owner," said Simmons, whose father owns the shop.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said a barbershop can become a substitute for a social club and can have the same problems of noise, loitering, gambling and drug activity.

"The city is obviously concerned about the quality of life, and rightfully so," DeFazio said.