Blame it on the recession, experts say.
Vallejo has been hit hard by red-ink budgets and police cutbacks. That doesn't make it unique in the Bay Area - other cities that historically have battled prostitution, such as Oakland and Hayward, are suffering from similar problems.
Those cities, however, still have the resources to take on prostitution. FBI agents joined Oakland, Hayward and other cities' police recently to break up child and Asian prostitution rings. Oakland's city attorney went to court in December to shut down three motels where hookers allegedly ply their trade.
But Vallejo has not been as lucky.
It is so broke that in 2008 it became the first California city to declare bankruptcy over entrenched budgetary problems. City officials have had to trim the police force from 155 to 90, leaving the remaining officers with little time to haul in hookers and johns - and word of this traveled fast in the street trade.
As a result, streetwalkers and pimps have come from as far away as Oregon and Mexico to work Vallejo.
