Feature article about Portland\u27s efforts to rid the city\u27s streets of prostitute

Feature article about Portland\u27s efforts to rid the city\u27s streets of prostitutes and those who cruise Parkside and other areas hoping to buy sexual favors. According to police statistics, a decade after Portland began its war on prostitution, arrests for soliticiting are down from a high of 250 a year in the mid 1980s to 60 in 1998. The number of women working the streets has also decreased from double digits in the \u2780s to only a handful today. Police know prostitution is still prevalent and that it has just gone underground in response to a 1981 john\u27s law and a 1996 anti-cruising ordinance. But with about 56,000 requests for police help last year for a variety of crimes, prostitution hasn\u27t been a top priority and funds devoted to the effort have diminished from $100,00 a year to $6,000 a year. Meanwhile, the sex trade that withered on the street is thriving in places like escort services listed in the Yellow Pages and the Internet