From left: 200 West 57th Street, 211 East 43rd Street, 11 West 36th  Street, 202 West 40th Street and 23 West 56th Street

Massage parlor — the phrase conjures up images of the seediest days of Times Square in the late 1970s, when dozens of locations offered sexual services. Even today, with that concentration thinned out, the words elicit knowing smirks from brokers, aware that such businesses continue to operate throughout the city in the nooks and crannies of commercial and residential properties. These massage parlors thrive in part because the law adopted by the city’s Board of Estimate in 1978 banning sexual massage businesses and providing a strict review process for legal ones has become one of the biggest paradoxes in code enforcement. Instead of cracking down on the massage parlors, thought to be hotbeds of prostitution, the statute today is used mainly to regulate gyms and health clubs, which are not…. [more]

The New York Mets’ Citi Field Stadium in Queens has, as yet, failed to receive a final certificate of occupancy and sign-off from the city, because a number of its retail spaces remain vacant, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sources state the heavily industrial neighborhood as a reason for difficulty in filling the spaces.

It’s a similar story for the Yankees who have failed to gain approval from the Public Design Commission, a body that views permanent works of art, architecture and landscape architecture proposed for city-owned property, for the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. They haven’t even filed for approval, but a spokesperson was keen to clarify that the team has not been bypassing regulations; a spokesperson told the WSJ that they’d be filing shortly…. [more]