Stories from Nebraska Avenue - part 3

previously..... Part 1 ..... Part 2 ......

So what did residents do about the prostitution problems? They took down tags and called or wrote the owners. They demonstrated and picketed. They confronted prostitutes and the johns. They called on city government with petitions.

Residents fight crime their own way
DAVID BRACKMAN - St. Petersburg Times
June 5, 1989 TAMPA - Rather than rely on an overburdened police department to rid Nebraska Avenue of prostitutes and illegal drugs, homeowners and renters in north Tampa have employed a few tricks of their own to take their streets back from the streetwalkers. For one thing, they're taking numbers - license plate numbers of strange cars and vans they see in their neighborhood. But the residents won't stop there. They consult public records to find out who is registered to a specific plate, then place a telephone call or mail a note warning the owner that the vehicle has been spotted in their neighborhood, possibly engaging in illegal activity. ''We're doing this because the problem is more serious than plain old prostitution,'' resident Jane Ridolfi said. ''There's drugs, too. And the problem has been escalating recently. ''It's like a cancer. They control our streets now. But we're going to take control back.'' Miss Ridolfi recently put up a homemade, hand-lettered sign in the 7400 block of N Nebraska. It warns passersby that people living in the area will be ready with pen and paper to take tag numbers. ''People are finally getting to the point where they're not going to take it anymore,'' said William Cook, who works at the Alpine Barber Shop across the street from Miss Ridolfi's sign. ''Public sentiment, that's the one thing you cannot defeat.'' Miss Ridolfi is the spokeswoman for the Citizens of Evelyn City, a neighborhood watch group made up of people living east of Nebraska between Sligh Avenue and the Hillsborough River. Evelyn City comprises the northern portion of Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood. ''As a homeowner, I don't want to see scantily dressed women hanging out in front of my house,'' Miss Ridolfi said. ''As a real estate agent, it's difficult to sell the neighborhood. Their activity is detrimental to the neighborhood.'' Thursday about 75 Evelyn City residents and business owners attended a Neighborhood Watch meeting. Miss Ridolfi said they logged about 30 specific complaints, most of them related to prostitution and drug dealing along Nebraska and its side streets. Evelyn City isn't the only north Tampa community newly committed to battling prostitution and drug use along its streets. Just north of Evelyn City in Sulfur Springs, residents are attempting to reorganize a Neighborhood Watch. ''We've been intensifying our efforts in the last few weeks because Sulfur Springs also has a problem with prostitutes and crack cocaine,'' said Linda Hope, president of the Sulfur Springs Action League, the area civic association. Robert Lutz, an association member, has been canvassing the neighborhood for weeks, looking for trouble spots and talking with residents. The police recently raided a nearby crack cocaine lab and Lutz has noticed that illegal activity has since declined. ''But in the warm weather, the streets start getting busy again,'' Lutz said. ''I'm trying to get people motivated to reorganize the Neighborhood Watch because if we lie down and don't do anything about it, (the dealers and prostitutes) are going to be back.'' Lutz said he hopes the Neighborhood Watch is up and running by the end of June. ''We're at an infancy stage now, but eventually we'd like to have patrols with CBs (citizens band radios),'' he said. ''That way, we would have intimidation by visibility.'' The Evelyn City residents believe that by targeting the customers of the drug dealers and hookers, the illegal activity will diminish. Miss Ridolfi said she alone has placed a few dozen phone calls based on tag numbers. ''It's strictly informal,'' she said. ''Only a few of us are making the calls. But as a group, we will pull this cancer out of this neighborhood.'' The residents say they are desperate, and are not dissuaded by the possibility that someone may find the phone calls accusatory and a violation of their rights. Tampa Police Capt. Keith Linton said the department has had no complaints from anyone who has received a call or a note from the residents. Linton said the residents have not forwarded the list of tag numbers to the police. ''Civil rights violations are usually brought against governmental entities, not private citizens,'' said Gary Betz, a Tampa attorney who specializes in civil rights cases. By making the calls, the residents ''could be treading on thin (legal) ice if they use obscenities or threats, but it sounds like an ingenious approach to community action.'' Linton said that in the past three weeks, the police department has responded to numerous citizen complaints about prostitution by periodically sending two squads of plainclothes officers out along Nebraska. On June 1, police arrested 13 people on solicitation charges, all along Nebraska between Hillsborough and Fowler avenues, Linton said. On May 21, two were arrested for soliciting in the Evelyn City area. Earlier in May, the sting operations netted 54 arrests, Linton said, about one-quarter of them in the Evelyn City area. ''It's not very difficult. All a woman has to do is be on Nebraska Avenue, and they're going to get propositioned,'' Linton said.


2. 100 picket to protest prostitution
SUE CARLTON - St. Petersburg Times
March 4, 1990
Between Saturday-morning appointments at a Nebraska Avenue hair salon, hairstylist Tom DeForest had about 15 minutes to make his views known. So he stepped outside, grabbed a picket sign and joined dozens of residents and business owners who were protesting the prostitutes they say have given this busy thoroughfare a bad name. ""We've got a nice shop here, and you've got prostitutes out front and it just cheapens it,'' DeForest said. ""To look out and see all these people with their signs, it's just magnificent.'' About 100 people, mostly residents of the Sulphur Springs and Seminole Heights neighborhoods, gathered along several blocks of Nebraska Avenue for several hours Saturday, carrying signs and yelling to motorists. Some brought dogs, some brought children, and some even dragged folding chairs curb-side for a more comfortable protest. Neighbors around Nebraska Avenue say they are tired of living with the notorious reputation Nebraska Avenue has gained as the place for prostitution in Tampa. While they doubt it can be eliminated, they say they do not want it in their back yard. ""It's kind of disgusting, when you're trying to take your girlfriend home and there they are,'' said 16-year-old Ian Smith. ""My kids see them,'' said resident Richard Bush as he waved his sign. ""They want to know what those ladies are doing on the corner.'' Thom Lewis said the situation has interfered with his job as a real estate agent. ""I had prostitutes on more than one occasion solicit the customers I was trying to sell a house to,'' he said. The reaction from passing cars ranged from apathy to enthusiastic honking, clapping, yelling and thumbs-up signs. There was an occasional obscene gesture. The group seemed to have the support of surrounding businesses. ""It's about time somebody did something, because it's bad,'' said Lora Hollbrooks of Hollbrooks Car Repairs, Sales and Service. ""You ask them to move and they say "It's a free sidewalk.' The law chases them off but an hour later they're back.'' Tampa police officers, who monitored and supported Saturday's protest, also contributed a taped-together roll of prostitution-related arrest reports made since October - 121 arrests that protesters turned into a 100- foot-long banner. ""I call that my scroll of shame,'' said Sgt. Rick Duran.