Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

x close
The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Cops Raid Lake City Massage Parlor

Afternoon Fuzz   October 14, 2011 at 3:19 pm Jonah Spangenthal-Lee

Seattle police raided a North Seattle massage parlor earlier this month and arrested one man for promoting prostitution.

Police records say vice detectives began investigating the spa on 102nd and Lake City Way NE. in June. Police made several visits to the business where, police records say, one women offered to give an undercover detective a handjob for $60.  Police also say the woman told the detective she “would have sex with me somewhere else when she got off work,” and gave the detective her phone number.

Detectives continued visiting the Lake City business between June and October, and employees continued to offer officers handjobs for $40-60, police records say. At least one woman working at the spa “did not appear to speak any English.”

Police records say none of the women associated with the business “have a license to practice massage in Washington state”

During the investigation, SPD sent in an undercover female officer to to business, where a male staff member allegedly offered to hire her to give massages, and told her “she could keep the tips from giving men ‘hand jobs’.”

Police later found ads for the business on Backpage.com and Craigslist, and filed warrants to find out who had posted the ads.

The 46-year-old man behind the ads, police records say, had also posted ads for a massage parlor in Kent.

Police served a warrant at the Kent and Lake City businesses earlier this month, and at the 46-year-old man’s home. SPD booked him into jail, and prosecutors are currently reviewing the case for possible charges.

SPD warrant records indicate that in addition to the vice case, the department’s Narcotics unit may also be investigation the owner for drug crimes and money laundering related to the businesses.


  • shane phillips

    Prostitution is one thing, but performing massages without a license!? Unconscionable.

  • jimu

    I’m curious how far the police go in the undercover stings.

    Do they ever try to crack down on gay massage parlors?

  • gohuskies

    Prostitution on Lake City Way? I’m shocked!

  • respect

    wastefully wasting waste

  • FrequentPoster

    I guess you might say this story didn’t come with a happy ending.

  • TheThunderingHerd

    Round up the usual suspects!

  • Bob Feemster

    Shit. Blue cross has been paying for my PT there.

  • FrequentPoster

    Gay massage parlors? Do you get a free bratwurst with sauerkraut with that, or is it considered redundant?

  • Shemlock Shomes

    I wondered about the spurt (sorry, guys!) of prostitution charges in the JILS Register. If you have three minutes and the whim, load the URL for the King County’s Jail Inmate Lookup Server and skim through the last 24 hours’ worth of arrestees. If there’s a major bust (rape inv, several identity fraud charges, attempted murder, home invasion) you’ll find out a few details a few days later here. But you’ll have names of the suspects and opportunity to draw all kinds of inferences and conclusions.

  • Bark More, Wag Less

    Would you want a brothel next to your home and family?

  • Johns

    Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. ‘Cause SPD loves the Mayor so much they’re just aching to help his ‘crusade’ against the Weekly.

  • Will

    Yes, I would be fine with it. Deal with that.

  • Will

    Here is a radical idea:

    Stop concerning yourself with whether grown, adult, of-legal-age-to-consent men and women are voluntarily exchanging sex for money.

    Stop indulging your silly and selectively hypocritical outrage at the idea that women trying to feed, shelter, clothe and care for themselves and their families are surviving in this cruel economy thanks to the donations of horny men.

    Stop sputtering in rage at the fact that women are being saved from having to cram themselves and their family members into sleazy, frightening and dangerously unsafe shelters, thanks to the financial contributions of their customers.

    Learn to get a grip and accept the fact that there are women who are grateful to have a roof over their head, clothes on their back, food in their stomachs, coffee and cigarettes and the occasional medical care when they need it — and that all of this is made possible by the $40-to-$60 contributions they receive in exchange for 10-20 minutes’ work in performing oral sex.

    If you truly want to crack down on underage prostitution and the sexual abuse of minors (and we all should want that, and most of us generally do — including most men who pay for sexual services)…

    … then, here is your solution.

    Stop wasting time, energy and taxpayers’ money on chasing, arresting, prosecuting and criminalizing grown, of-legal-age-to-consent sexual providers and sexual customers.

    Instead, adopt the safe, sensible, enlightened and low-key approaches adopted in other, more-enlightened countries around the world:

    * Decriminalize the sale of sexual services by people over the age of 18.

    * Decriminalize the purchase of sexual services by people over the age of 18.

    * Set aside a particular area of town (almost certainly one zoned primarily for commercial or industrial use, not a residential area) to be a dedicated full-time red-light district.

    * Require women wishing to work “The Zone” to purchase an individual license good for 3 months at a time.

    * In return for issuing the license, require women to supply proof of legal age along with fingerprints and DNA samples. The fingerprints and DNA can be cross-checked against databases containing fingerprints and DNA samples from convicted criminals (to verify age) and families of missing children (to determine if women applying for the licenses have ever been reported as missing or kidnapped).

    * Use the funds collected from issuance of licenses to fund programs to perform regular health checks of working girls and/or assist underage sex workers to exit the sex trade and receive training in life skills, non-sexual employment and becoming independent and self-sufficient.

    * Focus on arresting and prosecuting pimps, abusive / violent customers and sexual predators to the fullest extent of the law.    

  • Kick-Asstastic

    HEY NIMBY:  No more than I want a bank next door nor a church, nor a Army/Air froce base in my area.  Yet I have to put up with all those.  

  • Kick-Asstastic

    60 bucks for a handjob!  What’s the world coming to?

  • Anonymous

    Tony Ortega, Village Voice editor, in an effort to protect prostitution ad revenue, belittles anti-child trafficking activists and tries to manipulate statistics on child sex trafficking to create an illusion that this is a minor problem.  See here: http://villagevoicepimp.com/tony-ortega-2/

  • Willy_wonka787

    So-called “child sex trafficking” is indeed a minor problem. It virtually does not exist. The lies of the hysterical “child sex traffickers are everywhere, Backpage must be shut down” LIARS have been exposed and debunked.

    NEW RESEARCH DEMOLISHES THE STEREOTYPE OF THE UNDERAGED SEX WORKER — AND SPARKS AN OUTBREAK OF DENIAL AMONG CHILD-SEX-TRAFFICKING ALARMISTS NATIONWIDE.

    http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2011-11-03/news/commercial-sexual-exploitation-of-children-john-jay-college-ric-curtis-meredith-dank-underage-prostitution-sex-trafficking-minors/