34TH SIN STRIP SCARES NEIGHBORS

Residents Say City Sees It As A Containment Area

ST. PETERSBURG - Sevell Brown III condemns the prostitutes, pimps and drug
traffickers who ply their trades near his south side home - and figures
that something is deeply amiss in a city that can't find ways to stop it.

"Most of the people who live in this area, they're literally prisoners in
their own homes," said Brown, president of the 31st Street Neighborhood
Association. "Because there's no comfort zone being provided by law
enforcement or the mayor."

Brown echoes the frustrations felt by a number of crime-weary residents who
live along or near a seedy stretch of 34th Street South, between Second and
26th avenues south.

They complain about prostitutes turning tricks in unlit alleys, about their
homes being broken into, about their properties being defecated on or
littered with used condoms and drug paraphernalia.

A number are elderly women, some of whom did not want to identify
themselves for fear of reprisals from the pimps and drug dealers.

Shirley Houston, a neighborhood block captain who lives on 18th Avenue
South, said she's called police so many times she knows the number by heart.

"These people are a nuisance, and it's getting worse," she said. "It's
really getting to be more than I can bear."

Lilie Lawrence, a retiree, said she doesn't feel safe leaving her house on
24th Avenue South, just a half-block from an abandoned motel that has
become a gathering spot for prostitution and drug crimes.

"This thing is a hassle," she said, pointing to the boarded-up building
that fronts 34th Street South. "It should have been gone a long time ago.
But [the city] won't tear it down."

Violence and drug dealing are not new to 34th Street, also designated as
U.S. 19, a major north-south artery.

A Busy Place Indeed

But Brown said the problem with prostitutes in his neighborhood worsened
about three years ago, after police began cracking down on the
streetwalkers along 34th Street North - pushing them farther south.

As recently as Christmastime, Brown said he saw "about nine prostitutes and
at least a dozen pimps" congregating on 34th Street at 16th Avenue South,
where he lives.

"It was like a pimp convention," said Brown, also state president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "It was almost like you were on a
strip in Las Vegas."

Police officials deny chasing prostitutes into Brown's neighborhood from
the north end of 34th Street, and say the situation merely illustrates the
cat- and-mouse nature of enforcing prostitution laws.

During the past year, police made 190 prostitution arrests along 34th
Street North, compared with 40 along 34th Street South, statistics show.

Citywide, police made 462 prostitution arrests last year - a 13.5 percent
increase over the 407 arrests in 2000 and a 32 percent increase over the
350 in 1999, statistics show.

Last year, local lawyer Darryl Rouson sued three motels in the 400 block of
34th Street North, alleging they were operating as havens for drug use and
prostitution.

Rouson said this week he's settled with one motel, Economy Inn Express
Stadium, and is in the process of settling with another, New Plaza.

The Economy Inn has agreed to such remedial actions as employing a
uniformed security guard, installing a camera system as well as procedures
for comparing the names of guests against known prostitutes, Rouson said.

As for New Plaza "I can't speak to the terms of the settlement, but I can
tell you the problem has subsided and improved 80 percent," he said.

Legal action is proceeding against the third motel, Villager Lodge, said
Rouson, president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP.

Updating The Guest Lists

Along 34th Street South, Brown and other neighbors say prostitution and
drug crimes are based around two low-rent motels just south of 15th Avenue,
the Sundaze Motel and the Driftwood Motel.

In the past year, police responded to the Sundaze 98 times, making 12 drug
arrests and four prostitution arrests, statistics show. At the Driftwood,
police made 108 service calls, with 18 drug arrests and 13 prostitution
arrests.

Reginald Mitchell, the community police officer assigned to the area, said
the motel owners have cooperated in trying not to rent rooms to known
prostitutes identified on a list provided by police.

"You're not going to be able to stop every last one of them from getting a
room there," he said. "Because they may not be on an updated prostitution
list."

And if they can't, there's nothing to stop the sex workers from serving
their clients elsewhere - in alleys, vacant lots, even in front of homes.

Brown recalled he once walked out of his house and spotted a van parked on
his street, with a prostitute and her customer inside.

Residents said a far stronger and visible police presence would vastly
improve the situation.

"We're not getting any response that we pay taxes for," said retiree Samuel
Hemingway, who lives on 15th Avenue South with his wife Rose. "They're
treating the neighborhood like: Whatever's going to happen is going to happen."

Last week, someone stole a cushion from the porch swing he set up in his
front yard for his grandchild - most likely to use as a bed, he suspects.

"It ain't getting no better, and I ain't getting no younger," said
Hemingway, 76.

A Dumping Ground?

Brown contends police provide less protection in the economically
disadvantaged area than in other parts of the city, particularly the north
side.

He and others suspect their neighborhoods are seen by those in city hall
and the police department as a sort of containment area - where
prostitution, drug dealing and other crimes will be tolerated.

That view is borne out by the results of a private survey that Brown's
neighborhood association conducted last year. The findings were released a
few weeks ago.

The questionnaire dealt with city efforts to crack down on prostitution and
drug trafficking along the 34th, 31st and 37th street south corridors.

Of the 102 people said to have responded, 98 said they believed Mayor Rick
Baker and then-Police Chief Goliath Davis III, now a deputy mayor, were
allowing 34th Street South to be "a dumping ground." And 100 believed that
drugs and prostitution were being "managed."

Baker questioned the findings, saying he doesn't know how the survey was
conducted or what percentage of people responded.

"I really don't know who he really questioned to get this information, so
it's hard for me to judge the validity of what's in that report," he said.

The mayor defended his crime-fighting efforts, citing the increase in
prostitution arrests. He also is working with state Rep. Frank Farkas,
R-St. Petersburg, on legislation that would require drug rehabilitation for
prostitutes arrested more than once as an alternative to jail.

Most prostitutes are also drug users, primarily crack cocaine, and are back
out in the streets within a day or two of being arrested, Baker said.

"Are there still prostitutes? Sure there are - in every major city in the
country," he said. "But arrests are up, and we're looking at addressing
some of the underlying causes of it, which have not been addressed in a lot
of places to the extent we're trying to do."