JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Margaret Gregory is fed up.
“We find condoms sometimes when we get up in the middle of the night or the morning,” she said.
Day and night, she said she sees people believed to be soliciting and engaging in prostitution in her Durkeeville neighborhood.
“My neighbor next door. She’s had people go up in her yard. They do their transactions there. Up and down here. They circle around this area doing U-turns. They circle back and forth. It’s hard for traffic to come by,” Gregory said.
Instead of sitting by on the sidelines, Gregory decided to pull out a marker and get to work. She created a sign that says “no prostitution in this neighborhood,” complete with an STD information pamphlet. As a taxpaying citizen, she feels she shouldn’t have to accept that kind of illegal behavior.
Neighbors are catching on to her message.
“I just noticed it yesterday,” Clarence Felder said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has been busy catching offenders. A 28 year-old woman was busted on September 25 on San Jose Boulevard. A 38 year-old woman was caught August 30 at a motel on Windsor Commons. Several stings in September on the Southside netted at least nine arrests.
Gregory’s goal is that her small stance will make a big change.
“Hopefully that will deter them from coming down here in this community,” Gregory said.
Gregory also started a petition to get more cameras installed around the neighborhood. She hopes to get 1,500 signatures so she can present it to city council.