Suburban patrons lament the closure, neighborhood activists rejoice. The Tokyo Spa where massage apparently touched on all pleasure centers is no longer operating at Fairfield Avenue and Jetland in Black Rock. The signature letters TOKYO have been removed from the building at 2925 Fairfield Avenue and a lease sign now occupies the storefront window.
In 2012, neighborhood activists in Black Rock, led by the so-called Smut Busters such as State Rep. Auden Grogins, City Councilwoman Sue Brannelly, Jennifer Buchanan and 2011 mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster, and other community organizers from OneBridgeport, formed a coalition to sink teeth into local and state legislation that armed law enforcement with tools to shut down illegal massage parlors that impacted quality of life, attracted criminal elements, promoted sex trafficking and reduced property values.
In the past year police launched a series of raids on massage establishments, arresting unlicensed operators and employees, frequented by a large clientele of johns from the suburbs. Companion legislation was also recently passed that added additional law enforcement power to regulate and shut down unlicensed massage parlors and adult entertainment establishments.
Will the women from Tokyo Spa turn up elsewhere?
*** GOODBYE FOREVER! ***
I guess for the Smut Busters it was a happy ending.
If you pay taxes in Bridgeport, it was a happy beginning …
Good riddance and congrats to the women who lead the charge against this type of illicit business that certainly does nothing to enhance the neighborhood. What is most ironic about it is men from the suburbs who would otherwise not go to Bridgeport for a meal or entertainment somehow managed to find their way to a low-class spa.
That explains why I never saw anyone go in there.
Dave, did you go in there?
He preferred Diedre’s.
No Lennie I didn’t, but you seem to be the one who knew about the back door … 30 years in BR I never knew about it and I never saw anyone go in the front door of any of those establishments.