Local couple creates 'No Ho Zone'

FLINT (WJRT) -- (07/30/08)--A fed-up Flint couple is using signs and slang to speak out against illegal activity in their neighborhood.

They say it's all unfolding in front of their home at the corner of Court Street and Hazelton on the city's west side.

Before Sherry Lynn and Russ Palmer bought a home near downtown Flint to operate an antique store, they were warned.

"(We were told) there were three businesses on this corner and the other two were here first and (that there is) prostitution and drugs and we better learn to co-exist," Sherry Lynn Palmer said.

But the activity of the other two businesses made it rather difficult for the three to co-exist.

"And you try talking to them and you try the police and you try everything under the sun and you still have this," Sherry Lynn said.

One day while watching a news report about the ozone level, the Palmers got an idea.

"We'll I said, 'Geez, what about the "Ho Zone" level around here? That's getting kind of high, too,'" Russ said.

So they attached a sign to their fence.

"I want these people to know that it is a 'No Ho Zone' and eyes are coming out of the woodwork and we're watching you," Sherry Lynn said.

It was an attention getter.

"They were arguing with me whether it should be a 'No Ho Zone' or not. Prostitutes were stopping and arguing with me, with the pimps, hanging by and coming by on a bike and monitoring the conversation," Sherry Lynn said.

But the Palmers are standing their ground and have pulled out more word art.

"We live here," Sherry Lynn said. "I understand other things happen in the neighborhood, but they don't have to be in front of my house."

The Palmers say many of their neighbors appreciate the bold stand they've taken against crime in the neighborhood, and so far, they say it's working.

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