February 17, 201016 yr I got a call from a friend today who said that two of the more popular Straight Saunas in Copacabana have been closed! this coming on the heels of Help Dicco, the major straight prostitute pick up bar being closed a few months ago! He said Rudy Guiliani had been in Rio during New Years and that the city has hired his consulting firm to advise on how to get Rio ready and clean for the Olypmpics in 2016 and world Cup in 2015. I wanted to find out what this meant for the gay saunas. So I called my friend who owns one of the saunas there. He said, that yes it was true about Rio giving Guiliani's company a contract to advise the city on how to become safer/reduce crime and crime elements, etc. and this was due to cleaning up the whole city for the Olympics. For example, on the beaches there were many vendors with various tents of all shapes and colors set up to rent chairs/umbrellas/suntan lotion,drinks etc. Now they all have to have the same white tents, have a limited number of these items to rent and it's very organized. Taking measures to give order to what was chaotic free for all on the beach among the various vendors. This gives the beach a much more organized clean look to the tourists(Times Square ring a bell??) He said the Closing of Help Disco had nothing to do with any of this, they had lost the lease and were sitting on a prime piece of Copacabana beach front property and the city wanted it for a Museum of Image and Sound which is now being designed. He said since prostitution is legal that is not the issue, but strict enforcement of laws are. He said all the saunas hand a unannouced visit by the local enforcement agencies to see if anyone was smoking(Rio passed stringent anti smoking laws this past year) He felt the cleaning up of the areas where the "street workers" are was due to the gov't wanting to have the hookers workin inside so the government can get the tax revenue which they don't get from the street workers. Also the two saunas the were closed were in Copacabana, one within 1/2 block of the beach. He didn't feel there was cause to worry right now but felt there might be issues when we get within a year or two of the Olympics. They want to eliminate crime and they say "sexual tourism", but the Straight sexual tourism is huge there among the straight crowd with a large number of Europeans and South Africans in particular coming for that. The gay sex scene is miniscule by comparison. The good news is that should Rio clamp down in a couple years, there is still Sao Paulo/Porto Alegre/Salvador/Belo Horzonte, all the major cities have gay saunas!
February 18, 201016 yr Active Members last year when I was there they already had a law against smoking, but in saunas everyone smoked so i think they will be more strickt now.
February 18, 201016 yr Active Members I told you I was scared of this kind of thing when I heard Rio got the Olympics. Damn Fuck Shit Hell Damn.
February 18, 201016 yr I told you I was scared of this kind of thing when I heard Rio got the Olympics. Damn Fuck Shit Hell Damn. Thumper, don't hold back, tell what you really think! LOL Seriously, the sauna owners are not anticipating any changes to sauna operations and if the worst case scenario happened your probably looking 3 or 4 years away. and all they would do is get a business license for a hotel and a business license for the bar area and separate the two. 117 used to be a straight sex motel before it became a sauna. The five gay saunas are very very small operations in this whole thing. for example one of the straight saunas in Ipanema has huge keg lights/search lights adertising their place and it's in the much tonier area of Ipanema. None of the gay saunas are near the tourist zone. Pointe being the closest and it's near the favela entrance. Meo Mundo is downtown and 117 is in the working class area of Gloria. the other notable exception to the NYC comparison is that prostitution is Legal in all of Brazil and they would much rather have it behind sauna doors than street hookers like they have in front of corujinhas restaurant.
February 19, 201016 yr Active Members I hope you are right. But Giuliani is pure evil, and evil distills.
March 2, 201016 yr Active Members I hope you are right. But Giuliani is pure evil, and evil distills. The Help Disco was closed and slated for demolition to make way for the fabulous museum which will be built there. Too bad that G.......out of NYC isn't concentrating on the drug lord situation; that's where the massaive crime prevails! I do hope that the few gay saunas will NOT be touched!
March 5, 201016 yr I hope you are right. But Giuliani is pure evil, and evil distills. I could not agree more. He cleaned up my Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and I hated it afterward. I hope he doesn't fuck up Rio!
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