Residents see uptick in suspicious massage parlors, raising concerns of trafficking in Santa Rosa

Late-night hours, darkened windows, surveillance cameras and a single neon sign saying “open” or “massage.” Within a half-mile of a central Santa Rosa neighborhood, more than a dozen such businesses have appeared, fueling concerns there is more going on behind their bolted doors than meets the eye.

Some are featured on erotic massage review or classified websites, like Rubmaps, Back Page Gals or Escorts Affair. Sexual images of young, airbrushed women appear on those sites with exclamations like, “New beautiful, sexy and lovely Asian girls.”

In general, the number of massage businesses in Santa Rosa has ticked up each year since 2021. Citywide, there were 119 businesses categorized as “massage,” “parlor” or “spa” at the end of 2023, according to city licensing data.

In just the first four months of 2024, at least 97 of these businesses have renewed their license or registered as a massage business for the first time, a city spokesperson said. And it’s a trend expected to continue.

Kristina Sunderlage has long noticed massage businesses with hidden entrances and neon signs, but she said there’s been a spike in and around her Midtown neighborhood in the past eight months.

“When I started noticing those other three near Talbot Avenue then I started noticing all of these others that I had never seen before,” she said.

She has identified at least a dozen within a couple miles of her home — at least 10 along just a 3/4-mile stretch of Fourth Street.

They’ve caught the attention of law enforcement, as well.

“The reality is most massage establishments are law-abiding businesses,” Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan said.

“We certainly have strong suspicions regarding commercial sex trafficking at some of the massage establishments in the city of Santa Rosa, but additional investigative steps must be taken before we can take enforcement action.”

Neighbors have provided police anecdotal examples of suspicious activity, he said, “but it takes much more investigative work to prove criminal activity beyond a reasonable doubt for court purposes.”

Concerned residents have so far held at least two meetings alongside massage professionals, experts and law enforcement. There is a potential, they say, that some of the businesses could be fronts for sex and labor trafficking.

The topic will be the focus of a public safety subcommittee meeting Tuesday.

Community concerns

Annette Cooper, a real estate agent with Santa Rosa’s Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc., said she has seen more requests in the last year from people looking to open massage businesses than ever before.

“In Santa Rosa you can put them anywhere — it doesn’t have to just be areas with businesses,” she said.

“You can open this kind of business with very little capital.”

Kurtis Bennett, 56, saw places with signs offering massages popping up in his neighborhood.

“The businesses may be legitimate, I don’t know,” he said. “But, just as an average Joe walking down the street, it would strike me that the number of businesses is greater than the demand for legitimate massage.

“So, what else is going on?”

The question prompted him to reach out to Verity, Sonoma County’s only rape crisis and healing center, and the California Massage Therapy Council, or CAMTC, a nonprofit that provides certification for massage professionals. He also organized a community meeting Feb. 14 at the Sonoma County Central Library in Santa Rosa after hearing from many other community members who had noticed what he had been seeing.

On the night of Valentine’s Day, more than 50 people attended, including Cregan, Santa Rosa Vice Mayor Mark Stapp and Ahmos Netanel, CEO of California Massage Therapy Council, who spoke for most of the gathering.

Netanel said he had flown from Los Angeles to be there partially because of the large amount of possible illicit massage businesses in the area.

“We believe that between 30 to 40 illicit massage businesses (are) in Santa Rosa,” he told the crowd, based on postings from an erotic massage review website. “For the size of this city, it’s significant.”

Throughout the meeting, people discussed their interactions with these businesses. One man living near possible illicit businesses said someone mistook his house for a nearby business, knocked on his door and requested a massage.

In another instance, a woman who said she lives between two businesses — three blocks to the left and three to the right — said she was afraid to let her teenage daughter walk in the area.