AUSTIN -- Some North Austin residents claim they're living in an open-air criminal marketplace and they refuse to stay silent anymore.
People who live in Georgian Acres want their neighborhood's bad reputation to change. It's an area bordered by North Lamar Boulevard, Rundberg Lane, Interstate 35 and Highway 183.
"Most of the lots are around a third or half an acre," said one woman who did not want to be identified.
She said many people choose to live there because it's affordable. While her family moved to the area for the land, she didn't anticipate what she would find in her own front yard.
"They just keep coming back to this spot, and it seems like it's never going to go away," she said.
She claims prostitutes, pimps and Johns troll the neighborhood day and night and leave trails of evidence behind. She's started documenting it through pictures.
"Syringes on occasion, lots of little clear plastic baggies," she said. "Lots of condoms. Lots and lots of beer cans and bottles. The bullets and the check book I found were over here one day."
Just a few blocks away, low-budget hotels line Interstate 35, and owners say they're doing everything they can to fight the problem.
"Just open prostitution. I mean, very casually just walking up and down the streets here, Powell (Lane) in particular," said Red Roof Inn Manager Matt Franklin. "My mission was to clean up this property immediately."
Franklin said they now require any guest or visitor show an ID. They frequently call police and don't allow any walk-in traffic.
"It's definitely going a little bit overboard. It's definitely going too far but what was being done was definitely not enough," Franklin said. "So we felt someone had to go a little too far in order to make a difference so that's what we did."
Franklin advises neighbors should do the same.
"Be diligent and don't let up," Franklin said.
"We understand the more we call the cops, the higher likelihood we get patrols in the area," the woman said.
Police working the Restore Rundberg initiative said Georgian Drive and Powell Lane have been labeled as hot spots for crime and said they do plan to start focusing more efforts there.
At the intersection of Powell and Georgian, police arrested 51 people for prostitution in 2013, 34 people last year and five as of March 2015. There were also three homicides in the area last year and one as of March 2015.
