Last week I went to a community crime meeting in South Baltimore. Last night, I ventured up to the northwest part of the city. The trip up Reisterstown Road from the Mondawmin Mall was how I remembered it from heading that way over the years -- corners taken over by drug dealers, curbs filled with trash, vacant rowhouses.

It is a sign that despite the statistics showing crime is down, there is still a long way to go.

As with the meeting of the Southern District Police Community Relations Council, the 17 residents who came to the Northwestern District Police Station were just as adament about getting a handle on their problems:

Get children off the streets and into structured programs. Work closely with police to end the mistrust on both sides. Build more recreation centers.

Patricia Rideout-Howard has led this group for three years yet last night's meeting had the feel of starting over. The group had taken the summer off and returned to form committees. She conceded after that she was frustrated. Too much talk. Too little action.

But the debate was lively. One person wanted to start a petition drive to build a rec center. Another plans to meet with 30 youths to plan a day-long program for children and teens. An aide to City Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton talked about an apprenticeship program that pays teens from Northwest Baltimore to work and develop skills.

That aide, Stafford Sutton, said he recently met a young homeless man. He wasn't looking for money. "He told me, 'All I'm looking for is a job.'"

Sutton said Middleton is working on a bill to ban the sale of tobacco products from drug stores. The Baltimore City Health Department is considering a rule to ban the sale of small, individual cigars -- known as 'blunts' -- in the city.

And several people at the meeting complained that stores, including package liquor stores, break open packs of cigarettes and sell them one-by-one, even to children.

A police sergeant sat off to the side and took notes. Two hours later, the meeting adjourned with a prayer.