College pal and future neighbor David Franke warned the couple that housing prices in Richmond were on the rise, and by the time Crandall and his wife made it back to the city in , they could only afford property on West Grace Street. However, the harsh reality of West Grace Street soon settled in, and Crandall became fed up with the circus-like atmosphere on his street corners, what you might call a drag dramedy.
Neighbors, including Crandall and others with small children, were finding condoms and syringes in their back yards. To combat prostitution, which is on the rise nationally, Crandall has taken matters into his own hands, as have many other neighborhood activists across the country.
He mobilized the West Grace Street Association to patrol the area on foot in the wee hours of weekend mornings beginning in May and lobbied for a way to combat cruising johns. As one neighborhood steps up its efforts, the prostitution just seems to shift elsewhere — Chamberlayne Avenue and Jefferson Davis Highway are two examples. So the question remains: What measures will really get to the root of the problem?
Mandatory drug rehab for prostitutes? Special sex-ed schools for convicted johns? What about singing words of hope to prostitutes on the prowl, as one North Sider does? Where the Johns AreAccording to the FBI, the United States recorded an estimated 79, prostitution and solicitation arrests in , compared with 37, in Squashing prostitution via the johns could potentially help innocent spouses. During a sting operation this past summer, a vice-unit police officer commented that most of the johns are married and live in the suburbs.
According to a National Health and Social Life Survey, 55 percent of johns are married or cohabiting. Fed up with what prostitution brings to a neighborhood, communities all over the country are taking action. Norfolk, for example, has seen a significant decrease in prostitution. In , the city had prostitution and solicitation arrests, compared to in Norfolk Police Department spokesman Chris Amos says the department made prostitution a top priority by increasing sting operations.
