Community activists in the Pennsylvania Avenue area are hoping that a series of block parties - including one tomorrow night - will help rekindle a sense of hope and community spirit in their troubled Westminster neighborhood.

"The reason we're having these block parties is to have very visible evidence of good, decent people taking back their streets," said Carter L. Clews, a spokesman for Drug Action 02, sponsor of the events. "For that one night, it drives away drug thugs who like to operate under the cover of darkness. It's like kicking over a rock and seeing miscreants and cockroaches scatter."

The series, featuring a "Summer in the City" theme, started Saturday and will continue every week until July 6 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Pennsylvania Avenue between James Street and Dutterer Way.

Drug Action 02 is made up of residents who want to improve the struggling neighborhood. Members say the parties will celebrate the positive aspects of living in an area with a rich history even as the neighborhood declines from run-down housing, drug trafficking, vandalism and most recently, a killing.

Sharon Ruth Yelton, 47, of no fixed address was found dead Sunday morning on Winters Street, off West Main Street. She had been beaten. Donald Lee Robertson, 36, of the 100 block of Pennsylvania Ave. has been charged with first-degree murder.

Clews, who lives on West Main Street, said the neighborhood won't be deterred by the killing.

"It helps us redouble our efforts," he said. "It's an unspeakable tragedy. There's no excuse for it having happened."

That attitude is shared by government officials and other residents who have formed the advisory committee for the Lower Pennsylvania Avenue Initiative. The committee, which met for the first time last week, plans to marshal resources to clean up the neighborhood.

The city and the Police Department sponsor the parties.

"I called Rebecca Orenstein [co-founder of Drug Action 02] the day after the homicide. I told her, 'I don't want you to get discouraged,'" police Chief Roger G. Joneckis said. "It's a terrible thing that this happened, but you still have to instill in the community a sense of the community coming together."

Joneckis attended one of the group's meetings and offered ideas for a neighborhood to pull together to solve problems. The chief says the partnership between his department and the residents' group fits his program of community policing.

Joneckis said police have had a constant presence in the neighborhood for the past year, but that patrols have been stepped up in recent weeks. Since April 26, he said, officers have worked an extra 162 hours along Pennsylvania Avenue and surrounding streets.