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Thirty years ago, the Druid Hills neighborhood just north of uptown was pretty idyllic for a kid like Darryl Gaston. "People walked the streets. They talked to each other. They sat on their front porches," remembers Gaston. But in the decades to follow, Druid Hills became one of Charlotte's more dangerous neighborhoods. These days, things are looking up: The City of Charlotte just named Druid Hills "Neighborhood of the Year." WFAE's Julie Rose takes a look at how the residents are trying to keep it that way. If you want to know what's up in Druid Hills, ask Janet DeShields. "I've seen people smoking pot coming out of here," says DeShields, pointing from her front porch. "The majority of the drug deals are right here on the street, see that house. Oh yeah." DeShields moved in two years ago because she liked the trees and the price was right. But it wasn't long before someone tried to break in to her house. Twice. She put up a fence, got a couple of dogs, and plastered her porch with "Keep Out" signs. Had she bothered to check the police reports, she'd have known what she was getting. Or she could have walked around the corner and knocked on Tammy Gaston's door. "We are a lower income neighborhood," says Gaston. "We have a lot of youth in the neighborhood that seem to not be on the right path. And another thing is that we have a lot of residents terrified of either calling the police or of the police themselves. Or someone coming after them if they know they've called." Has she tried to move? "Thought about it 10 years ago, was done with it. But little things started happening - like the economy," Gaston says with a dry laugh. And besides, she adds, good things really are starting to happen in Druid Hills. Crime is down 28 percent over last year. The city's latest report moved Druid Hills up from the "challenged" category to "transitioning." It still looks like the same place, though. What's really changed is the people. Take the June meeting of the Druid Hills Neighborhood Association. "Typically we have anywhere from 35 to 40 people in our meetings," says association president Darryl Gaston. He's not related to Tammy Gaston, but they both serve on the board. Forty people is an impressive showing for any neighborhood meeting. This kind of turnout is partly why Druid Hills got the Neighborhood of the Year award. Part of the secret is the way Darryl Gaston runs the meetings like a kind of community support group with a little bit of church revival on the side. He's a part-time minister, after all, and every gathering starts with a round of introductions. "Whenever we can come together we have the opportunity to just experience each other, and that's the wonderful part," Gaston tells the group. "So we're gonna start in the back." A man stands up. "My name's Anthony J. I live on Montreat Street. I gotta admit I came to a meeting a year ago, y'all and I'm just now making it back. So y'all pray for strength that I can continue to come." It's maybe a little more touchy-feely than you'd find at a lot of other neighborhood meetings, but it's working in Druid Hills. For the first time perhaps ever, there's a critical mass of residents taking interest in the neighborhood. Councilman Michael Barnes says he now hears from his Druid Hills constituents at least once-a-week. He was surprised - and pleased - when a group showed up at a recent council meeting to protest of a proposed new development. "That probably wouldn't have been as common a few years ago, but this new round of leaders is much more proactive," says Barnes. The project that group was protesting might be the best example of how things have changed in Druid Hills. Right now the property is a dumping ground for junk cars. The Urban Ministry wants to replace it with apartments for chronically homeless people. But the neighbors are saying "Wait a minute. We're already surrounded by half a dozen shelters, soup kitchens and homeless service centers. Why do we have to have another? And why didn't somebody come ask us what we thought of the project first?" "This has been going on since August of last year and we had no knowledge of it?" says Tammy Gaston. "Realistically, it looks like to me, let's slide in on this neighborhood who's not going to say one word about it." Maybe the old Druid Hills would have stood for it, says Gaston. But not the 2009 Neighborhood of the Year. The Urban Ministry says the neighborhood doesn't understand how safe and well-kept the building and its residents will be. But for a lot of people in Druid Hills, that's not the point. Utha Johnson just feels like she's starting to finally see progress after 50 years, and they're just barely hanging onto it. "If you get more homeless people running around the street, that's not helping the economy in our neighborhood," says Johnson. "We need a drug store. We need a decent grocery store." The problem is grocery stores look at average income before they move into a neighborhood, and incomes are less than half the city average in Druid Hills. Building yet more low-income housing or homeless housing won't help that. Last week their opposition helped stall some city funding for the Urban Ministry's homeless project. That taste of success only makes the folks in Druid Hills hungry for more. Related Coverage: Donors offer "Moore" to Homeless Shelters return homeless to streets for summer Homeless housing project advances Profile of a participant in Homeless to Homes Pilot Project Part 1 Profile of a participant in Homeless to Homes Pilot Project Part 2