The residents of Harlem Park, on the west side, predict an end to the scourge of vacant houses. Officials at the Johns Hopkins medical complex, on the east side, foresee businesses moving back to the neighborhood, creating new jobs.
And in the Middle East community, which sits in Hopkins' shadow, Lucille Gorham says to come back in five years and see what $100 million in federal money can do for struggling urban neighborhoods:
"It should look healthier and alive, revitalized and glowing," she said of her neighborhood. "It should be green and clean."
Yesterday's news that Baltimore will receive $100 million in federal empowerment zone funds set community leaders to talking optimistically about how the city's future will improve as funds flow in from Washington.
They see a city with fewer drug addicts and fewer slum landlords, with stronger schools and higher household incomes. They see families saved from collapse by counseling programs and job training. They see a drop in crime and a rise in school attendance.
All this although federal funds have been poured into cities for decades -- leading some observers to note that the 1960s War on Poverty turned out to be nothing more than an expensive holding action.
Neighborhood leaders and city officials insist this money will be used differently -- sent straight into the areas that need it most, with residents and local businesses deciding how to use it and shifting quickly if one approach fails.
"We are recipients of God's Christmas present," said Dr. Norman A. Handy Sr., president of the Harlem Park Neighborhood Council. "We've had many dreams. We've had many plans that have died or suffered an early death or lived an anemic life because of lack of funds. Now we can go to work."
In five years, he predicted, Harlem Park's 800 vacant houses will be gone -- renovated or replaced with new homes.
"You'll find no open-air drug markets," he said. "You'll find very little unemployment. You'll find a comprehensive family-services center," where residents can come for blood pressure tests or job-training information.
"What we are going to become is a community," Mr. Handy said. "What we are currently is a ghetto. A ghetto is a community in which the residents are not able to control their destinies. With this money, we're taking control."
Michael V. Seipp, who supervised Baltimore's application for the grant, said the designation will mean profound changes in the East, West and South Baltimore neighborhoods where the money will be concentrated.
"The streets will be cleaner," he said. "There will be an increase in home ownership. There will be more immediate impact on landlords who violate housing codes, and tenants who violate the code as well.
"We're going to see more homeowners. We're going to see more people with jobs. We're going to see the drug problem dealt with as it should be dealt with, as a public health issue," with treatment available when addicts come looking for it.
The empowerment zone funds will be spread through some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, with "village centers" -- including residents, churches, schools and businesses -- at the heart of the program. And the focus of the centers, Mr. Seipp said, is the family.
New programs will provide counseling for parents, job training, drug treatment, literacy classes -- whatever services the neighborhood leaders believe will help stabilize households and the community beyond.
"The hopes are clearly very high," said Richard Grossi, senior associate dean of finance and administration at the Hopkins School of Medicine.
With neighborhood leaders such as Mrs. Gorham, he has been working on revitalization plans for the Historic East Baltimore Coalition. The empowerment zone grant, he said, will speed up the schedule.
"The empowerment zone is the icing on the cake," Mr. Grossi said. "It's the working capital."
But the money alone won't make the difference, he said.
"The name of the grant, 'empowerment,' symbolizes what the government hopes we will accomplish," Mr. Grossi said. "We have to examine why neighborhoods have broken down, why banks and businesses left and took jobs with them. We've got to get jobs into East Baltimore. If we can't do that, we're going to fail again."
The stakes are high, community leaders said. Timothy D. Armbruster, president of the Morris Goldseker Foundation and the Baltimore Community Foundation, cautioned that plans for the funds must be made carefully.
"The important thing for us is to make sure the money is used to empower and strengthen communities," said Mr. Armbruster, who heads foundations that are closely involved with the empowerment zone process.