Community Groups Launch Anti-Prostitution Capaign ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - A west-side Rochester community organization has launched a campaign against men who look for prostitutes along Lyell Avenue. The Lyell Avenue Area 230 Group has raised funds to warn off johns and to embarrass those who are arrested.

Scott Benjamin heads the Charles Street Settlement and spoke for the Area 230 Group. He spoke in front of an anti-prostitution billboard outside the Lyell Avenue library branch. The group has raised funds to put up five billboards warning of tough anti-prostitution enforcement along Lyell Avenue. It will also send letters to the homes of people arrested for soliciting -- and put the names of those who get convicted on its web site.

Benjamin says there will also be yard and business signs and a publicity campaign aimed at discouraging men from coming to the neighborhood in search of sex.

The "230 Group" draws its name from the section of New York State penal code that deals with prostitution. It's also working to fight drug addiction, which members say drives many of the prostitutes working in the neighborhood.

Prostitution has been an unwelcome problem along Lyell Avenue for decades. Tough law enforcement in the 1990s cut back on the problem. But former City Councilman Bob Stevenson says the hookers came back this decade as police focused on other issues.

Stevenson says prostitution gradually wears down a neighborhood over time, bringing down property values and bringing in a criminal element. He says property and business owners in the area need relief.

Police Chief David Moore says his department will do all it can to make sure men seeking prostitutes along Lyell Avenue face a good chance of being caught. And he asked neighborhood groups to watch their streets and call 911 if prostitutes are forced out of Lyell Avenue and move elsewhere.
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