Hall didn't mind the chore because it occurred at his Talbott Street home, exactly where he wanted to be -- and one of the dozens of new homes in the Fall Creek Place development on the Near Northside.

"We've got to rebuild our city," said Hall, a geologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The neighborhood south of Fall Creek was once known as an area of drugs and gunfire. A federal grant and three years of work have turned the area into a quiet residential neighborhood.

"We had a lot of riffraff here," said Sylvia Davis, who has lived in a home near 23rd and New Jersey streets since 1964. "They moved in and moved out, and the houses began to be torn down."

Now, most lots have been filled with homes.

"We believed very strongly there was a market and the project could succeed, but it exceeded expectations," said Chris Palladino, project manager for Mansur Real Estate Services, the lead developer.

The 26-block area, bordered by Fall Creek, Pennsylvania Street, Park Avenue and 22nd Street, had a dismal reputation. The neighborhood was known for so many drug shootings that it was nicknamed Dodge City in the late 1990s.

The only cure for the neighborhood was to rebuild it. Assisted by a federal grant, the city of Indianapolis launched the project around 2000.

As of the beginning of the month, 300 homes were occupied, 50 were being built or rebuilt, and 20 lots were waiting for construction to start.

Those homes are being purchased, not rented, and that makes the difference, developers said. Instead of renters who spend a short time in a house, owners make long-term commitments.

Hall had lived in the Ambassador apartment building, which was taken over for library construction, and still wanted a place near Downtown. He chose a $130,000 house in Fall Creek Place. He wouldn't have considered the area if the crime problems hadn't been driven out.

"I'd lock my doors when I drove down Pennsylvania Street," Hall said. "They did a lot to clean out the problems."

Preventing crime in the area started with lighting. The refurbished streets were given added streetlights, and all homes were built with lighted front porches.

The new residents were encouraged to form block clubs and crime-watch groups. Ironically, that led to an increase in the number of crime reports as those new neighbors proved more willing to report trouble.

"It goes back to building a community on our end," said Ben Hunter, community liaison for the Indianapolis Police Department's North District. "We've seen a better sense of community. People are going out of their way to help us."

Community also meant filling the area with homes so there would be neighbors.

"Three or four years ago, there were only seven homes left on the block," said Judy Woodruff, who lives across from Hall on Talbott Street. "We thought the neighborhood would never be rebuilt, but it was."

The design idea for the development was to make it look like the neighborhood would have years ago and not like a subdivision plopped down on the Near Northside.

The neighborhood retains the existing straight-line streets; no curves or cul-de-sacs were added.

And the new houses have no driveways leading to the streets. They have garages leading to alleys in back, with the exception of some older houses that were allowed to keep their driveways.

"We hear comments all the time from people who say they can't tell the older homes from the newer homes," Palladino said.

The terms of the grant required that half of the homes be sold at a price that could be paid by a family making 80 percent of the Indianapolis median income. That income is around $51,000 a year for a family of four, which translates to a house price of $90,000 to $130,000.

So far, according to Palladino, there have been no foreclosures in the Fall Creek Place development, which he says is unusual when compared with the number of overall foreclosures in the Indianapolis housing market.