Exclusive | Prostitution busts plunge 60% but hookers multiply in NYCs infamous Market of Sweethearts

Scoring illegal sex along Queens’ Roosevelt Avenue has never been easier — as the number of hookers has multiplied and prostitution-related arrests have plunged by 60% along the seedy strip since soft-on-crime socialist Zohran Mamdani became mayor this year.John, a 40-year-old Manhattan horndog, said he has no problem schlepping on the subway to the notorious open-air sex bazaar — nicknamed the “Market of Sweethearts” — because the women are “cheap” and cops have their hands tied by lax laws and policies.There, scantily-clad streetwalkers brazenly solicit passersby around the clock, offering “happy ending” massages and more in front of rows of two-story commercial buildings.Often the activity occurs within sight of cops on patrol.The hookers walk their wide-eyed customers inside dozens of illegally operating brothels throughout the avenue’s red-light district, which stretches roughly two miles through Jackson Heights and Corona.“I can get it done for $60 to $80,” boasted John.

“In Manhattan ..

.it costs $200 to $300.”Negotiating a tryst is “super easy,” he added.

“They just show up and that’s it, and when I get bored with those women, I head to Flushing.“The Chinese women charge $60 for sex and $40 for oral sex,” he said.“They’re open to sex without a condom for $100 or more.“Latinas are more expensive.

With the Chinese women, you get 30 minutes; the Latinas are obsessed with watching the clock.”He said the woman lead customers to a “place upstairs, in very small rooms.”A Post reporter last week visited Roosevelt Avenue near 90th Street and spotted nine Asian women turning tricks while two others acted as hostesses or managers.They all declined to comment.However, when the reporter later approached a group of Ecuadorian sex workers, they began competing for his business.One offered “massages” using “three positions” running $100 for 20 minutes — which included $50 to rent time in a room of a nearb...