For 90 minutes, the people of Orchard Mews and Seton Hill debated how to save their neighborhoods from criminals. At the end, as officials hurried to escape the stage, the Rev. Michael Bishop, the secretary of the Seton Hill Association, noted his surprise:

"We had no idea the people of Orchard Mews were as scared as we were," he told me. "At least now it's out in the open."

It took no less than the mayor, the city council president, a city councilman, two top city police commanders, the housing commissioner, a city transportation official and the head of Baltimore's federal Housing and Urban Development office to get both sides to talk to each other. And it came after a Baltimore police officer, Dante Arthur, was shot and wounded Jan. 23 while making an undercover drug buy on Orchard Street in Orchard Mews. Arthur was released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center on Tuesday.

The dispute really isn't a surprise. Seton Hill is an historic enclave near Pennsylvania and Druid Hill avenues, made up of some of the city's oldest rowhouses. It's also steeped in African-American history, the possible site of an Underground Railroad stop (though that's in dispute), an historic church and home to the America's first native-born saint. Next door, Orchard Mews is a federal-subsidized townhouse community. Drug dealers use the narrow streets and hidden alleys to ply their trade, helping to make Pennsylvania Avenue one of the city's busiest drug corridors.

The people of Seton Hill have long complained about the violence and drugs coming from their neighbors. The people of Orchard Mews have long complained that they don't feel included in the community. It's not just attitude -- Seton Hill is Georgetownesque, almost quaint, while Orchard Mews is dark and foreboding.

But there are good people in both communities and they want the same thing: to be safe.

This was evident when residents from both communities spoke.

Said a woman from Seton Hill: "The police patrols have really gone down, and since then, the drug activity has really escalated. I can tell you exactly what the dealers look like. I know who they are. They look right into my eyes. People sit in their cars in front of my house and smoke marijuana. I talk to them. They talk to me. I'm pretty bold and I don't care. I want them to know that I'm watching them."

Said a woman from Orchard Mews: "We're stuck here. We can't go out and we can't get in. We can't go outside. When we hear gunshots, we hit the floor. When we call police, they come to our house and then everyone knows we called. You know we don't call the police because we live in fear every day."

Both women want the same thing. Maybe this forum, in which both finally realize that, will help bridge this divide. Seton Hill wants the management company that runs Orchard Mews to follow through on plans for lighting, hiring off-duty cops for security and evicting tenants who break the law.

Seton Hill resident Dean Parish had a pointed exchange with James S. Kelly, the head of the Baltimore field office for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Orchard Mews is privately owned and run, but the feds have a big say in how because many of the residents receive federal subsidies.

Kelly assured Parish that he was keeping a list of police reports and tenants who could be evicted. "We want to make sure the people of Orchard Mews are good neighbors," he said. "We have to make sure the police reports get to our managers, that our managers know what to do with them, that people get evicted and that our managers are trained to screen tenants."

Parish countered: "It's been like this forever. I've been here. Where have you been? It's nice that you kept a file, but what good does that do?"

Answered Kelly: "I can only say that we're doing what we can and you'd rightly be skeptical. We've got to give the police time to restore order."

And so it went for 90 minutes.

Michelle A. Storino, the executive property manager for Community Realty Management, which runs Orchard Mews and is based in Pleasantville, N.J., said she had her first meeting with tenants on Jan. 14. She said four tenants have been evicted recently for committing crimes, and that she'll working on getting more lighting put up. She also promised to hire off-duty police officers for security -- a big expense, she said, but one that has stalled and will not get her full attention.

Residents complained that it took a city cop to get shot to get their leaders to pay attention. But the police said it was because they were paying attention that the cop got shot. Baltimore Police Col. John Skinner said 21 officers have been quietly working drugs on the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor and that Arthur was part of that task force.

He reminded people who complained that officers don't show when they call 911 that sometimes a uniformed cop is told not to respond because undercover officers are already in the area. Skinner promised to find a way to let residents know that their complaint is being investigated without ruining a secret operation. Still, both Skinner and the mayor promised to put more uniformed foot patrol officers in Seton Hill and Orchard Mews, and Maj. John Bailey, the commander of the Central District, handed out his cell phone number so people can talk to him directly.

The city promised to revise streets that benefit drug dealers and hamper police patrols, add lighting (a temporary police floodlight keeps getting vandalized) and to press Orchard Mews management to fulfill their obligations and promises. City officials met with federal housing officials on Wednesday.

The biggest step might come later, when the people of Orchard Mews meet with the people of Seton Hill, establish a dialogue, and then perhaps their differences can be worked out without the intervention of the mayor and much of her staff.

The mayor reminded residents of both sides that it's not "you and us, it's us" but she also reminded Orchard Mews that two of the suspected shooters of the officer ran into a house in their community. "That's unacceptable, no matter what neighborhood you live in," she said.