Uplift East Durham is a grassroots organization for neighborhood improvement. Public agencies have two construction projects going on in the East Durham area closer to downtown, including Edgemont, once a red-light district known as "Smoky Hollow," and the former site of Few Gardens, a public-housing complex so tough that drug dealers once accosted a passing funeral procession.

DURHAM HOUSING AUTHORITY: HOPE VI

The $80-million project along East Main Street, Angier Avenue, Taylor Street and Morning Glory Avenue was announced in 2001 and includes about 140 for-sale detached and townhouse residences and 275 rental units meant to attract an economic cross-section of residents.

The Housing Authority's financial scandals of 2003-06 put the project more than a year behind schedule, but economic-development director Terrance Gerald said last week, "It's moving along," and should be done sometime in 2009.

Foundations are laid at the cleared Few Gardens site, where, Gerald said, 89 rental units are going up along with 42 houses and townhouses on an adjacent tract. Several more houses are under construction or rehabilitation along Franklin Street, near developer Andy Rothschild's mixed-use project in the Golden Belt factory building.

Three earlier project phases are more than 98 percent occupied, Gerald said, including the rental townhouses at Main and Elizabeth Street: "With a waiting list, I might add."

CITY OF DURHAM: EASTWAY VILLAGE

Immediately north of the former Few Gardens, the city has extended what used to be Barnes Avenue, renamed it Eastway Avenue, and replaced the decayed housing there with 16 single-family houses and 16 condominium units. Contractors' bids on 15 more single-family units closed last week, project manager Richard Valzonis said Thursday.

Of the 32 residences built, sales have closed on 14 houses and six condominiums.

"People want their own space, still," Valzonis said.

VIEW FROM A NEIGHBOR

Gail Mills has observed the neighborhood for decades. She and her husband, Ernie, run the Durham Rescue Mission at Main Street and Alston Avenue.

"It is really making a difference, seeing the new construction going up," she said. "It is just like you're in another part of town."

Near Eastway Elementary School, the area still has a high crime rate: 646 incidents within a half-mile radius of the school in 2007, according to the Police Department Crime Mapper. By comparison, the also-depressed area around the Lyon Park Community Center had only 41.

Mills, though, said she thinks crime will decline as the neighborhood's transformation continues.