AS ONCE-QUIET CITY BOOMS, SO DO DRUGS AND PROSTITUTION

ORANGE CITY Apartment manager James Stevens has a problem he never
dreamed he would face in this quiet Central Florida town: prostitutes
soliciting his tenants for sex in the street outside.

"I'm having to run them out of the parking lot here," said Stevens,
who owns Fountainview Apartments. "People are moving out because of this."

Orange City -- once a bucolic town where 19th century paddlewheel
steamers docked on the St. Johns River -- might seem an unlikely home
for hookers.

But authorities in this small-but-growing city southwest of Daytona
Beach say prostitution is on the rise.

During the past year, Orange City has seen a spike in prostitution
and drug activity, appalling some residents and business owners and
prompting Mayor Ted Erwin to call for a citywide meeting.

"It is my belief that the recent escalation in prostitution and drug
activities are the greatest threat to the quality of life we want for
our citizens," Erwin said last week.

During the past six months, Orange City police made about 10 arrests
for prostitution, said Chief Jeff Baskoff, though several women were
arrested more than once. Baskoff said that number is higher than in
recent years, though detailed statistics were not available Monday
because city offices were closed for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Most of the women are drug addicts selling their bodies to pay for
narcotics, he said.

"We are aggressively going after them," said Sgt. Jason Sampsell, one
of the department's criminal investigators. "We know who these people
are, and we're doing everything we can to combat the problem."

On Monday, four women stood chatting on the sidewalk on Blue Springs
Avenue, dressed in bikini tops and shorts, eyeing cars as they drove
by. They would not give their names or be interviewed for this story.

"We don't hear nothing; we don't see nothing," one woman told a
reporter. "But if you've got $20, you might get a different answer."

Police attribute the increase in prostitution to Orange City's
booming commercial growth, which they say is spurring drug activity.
The city's retail district is attracting people from all over west
Volusia County, including drug addicts who see an opportunity to
steal merchandise or connect with people to buy or sell drugs.

"Orange City is growing too fast," Sampsell said.

The trend is frustrating some residents and business owners, who have
demanded at recent City Council meetings that officials do more to
combat the problem.

"I'm losing business here," said Stevens, who has lived in Orange
City since 1953 and said he never saw prostitutes in town until
several years ago.

In Daytona Beach, where officials are adopting aggressive new
measures to fight prostitution, Police Chief Mike Chitwood said
Orange City should not let the problem spiral out of control.

"Anybody who says prostitution is a victimless crime is wrong," he
said. "Prostitution destroys neighborhoods, destroys the quality of
life and destroys the community."