By default, nonprofit groups even have become the new power brokers in the area. Aware that community leaders have been promised a voice in the decisions, potential investors are making the rounds of nonprofit groups, hats in hand. Their investments . . . Without that belief and understanding, none of it would have been possible. There is still much to do.
Private investors remain scarce, and poverty plentiful.
Although the streets in the theater district are alive at night, the activity has mainly pushed the prostitutes a few blocks south and east. A former longtime resident said she moved out when her preschooler began greeting prostitutes by name. As things improve, though, the visionaries keep elevating their notions of what can be. They imagine neighborhoods restored to their former glory, when the homes were among the most desirable in the region, when going shopping or going out meant going to 14th Street. It remains a vision, but their achievements allow ordinary people to see what they mean.