LaVetta Ricca has lived in this south side neighborhood her entire life. She remembers the good times. But over the years guns and drugs have polluted the streets, turning that past into a distant memory.

"When my granddaughter graduated from Bradley and became a nurse she came to me and said, 'Grandma, I don't want to break your heart but I don't want to live down here anymore. I don't want my child to be afraid to be on the streets."

Over the past week that's begun to change. Police arrested roughly two–dozen drug dealers as part of their Drug Market Intervention Initiative. And on Saturday residents and other groups gathered to clean up other debris.

"This is the ritual of giving the neighborhood back to the community," said volunteer Vin Glover, a member of the Mayor's Litter Committee. "Beth (Hermacincki) and her police team came in and took the bad guys away and now we're giving the community back. We're giving the streets back."

"If you have garbage to get rid of this is the day," said Beth Hermacinski, a Peoria policewoman. "We're physically cleaning up the neighborhood. We're removing graffiti, we're replacing light bulbs in street lights that are out."

It's not that the people who live in the neighborhood don't care. It's just that, until now, some of them have been afraid to come out of their homes to clean it up.

"They've withdrawn into their homes," said Hermacincki. "They've been so afraid to come on to the streets because of the criminal element. They know now that the criminal element is gone and they can come back out on the streets. This gives them that opportunity to breathe again."

And no one is breathing easier than the 71 year-old Ricca.

"This is proof to these people who are non–believers that we are going to get help," said Ricca. "This is your neighborhood! Take it back!"

These are the first steps to resurrecting a once–vibrant neighborhood.