Now, local officials have taken the radical step of asking a judge to declare several blocks off-limits to more than 80 people accused of engaging in prostitution - labeling them nuisances to the community and threatening fines if they return. Arrests have made barely a dent in the criminal activity. The neighborhood has earned an international reputation in recent decades for the street trafficking that permeates everyday life. It's known to prostitutes, cops and johns as the Bissonnet Track. These scenes might raise eyebrows in sprawling suburbs and well-heeled city districts, but they are ordinary and unremarkable to shopkeepers and apartment dwellers in this urban patch on the southwest outskirts of the city. 'They're selling their body to feed their kids,' their mother says.
A middle-aged woman in stilettos and a tight-fitting shirt stretched down to her thighs crosses a feeder road on a weekday morning, flicking her tongue suggestively at commuters stopped at the light.Ī few blocks away, tenants tell the building manager they've seen strangers having sex outside their doorways, in their complex's laundry room and inside Range Rovers in the gated parking lot.Ī kindergartner and first grader wonder aloud on their walk to school about the ladies standing around with their privates showing.
