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It’s a one-kilometre stretch in the heart of Forest Lawn that’s one of the last vestiges of a different era.

But for many residents of the east Calgary community, there’s no sense of nostalgia about one of the city’s two remaining physical strolls for sex workers, who’ve largely taken their trade off the street, transitioning to a more digital marketplace.

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At first glance, there’s little to separate the notorious stretch of 19 Avenue S.E. from any of dozens of other streets lined with ’70s-era homes in the neighbourhood that, only 60 years ago, was its own municipality on Calgary’s eastern boundary.

By the time commuters begin making their way home from work every night, the dynamic quickly changes on the busy thoroughfare, with clusters of women emerging along the 10-block strip to ply their trade, one that can often carry a heavy social cost for the community around it.

“The residents definitely feel hopeless. They’ve expressed a major concern about the fact that nothing’s being done,” said William Carnegie, former president of the Forest Lawn Community Association, who stepped aside earlier this year to run for Alberta’s Green Party in April’s provincial election.