From the Ozone to the Ho Zone

By DANA DeFEVER
Newhouse News Service

Published on: 08/05/08

FLINT, Mich. — Sometimes, Sherrie Lynn Palmer can't even walk her dogs down her street without vehicles beeping at her, mistaking her for a prostitute. So she decided to act.


After watching drug dealers and prostitutes doing business on the street and finding hypodermic needles and condoms left in their yard, she and Russ Palmer have posted a sign outside their home: "No Ho Zone."


"We don't want it here," said Sherrie Lynn Palmer, a 48-year-old budding artist who made the sign featuring drawings of eyes watching the street and a dog chasing a prostitute.

"There's a lot of really good people around here. I don't want to sit here and let the crime fester. ... It all starts with the prostitutes. It brings everything else."

Russ Palmer, 57, got the idea for the slogan after seeing a report on the ozone level.

The couple have lived in the house for four years. When they first moved in, they opened an antique shop, but the illegal activities on the street deterred customers. They closed the business after also having health problems.

The criminals and prostitutes don't live in the area anymore but they still choose to do their business there, sometimes throughout the day, Sherrie Lynn Palmer said.

"It would be a relief if it was only at night," she said.

There are hopes of cleaning up the streets and the neighborhood. Since the sign went up in May, there has been less activity on the streets, the Palmers said.

"The area's coming up to what we want. We're just waiting it out," she said. "I think it's a sign of hope."