HE PRODUCED CHARTS galore and figures upon figures. But as Mayor Martin O'Malley yesterday summarized the municipal agencies' response to the recent firebombing murder of Angela and Carnell Dawson and their five children, officials' action in the family's East Baltimore neighborhood appeared belated, tentative and puny.

But that's not to diminish their efforts. It only underscores how difficult it is to bring change to a neighborhood that has become a battlefield for people who hope for a brighter tomorrow -- like the Dawsons -- and those who don't: the gun-slinging drug dealers, pimps and petty criminals.

Mr. O'Malley hailed the Dawsons as "martyrs of Baltimore Believe," his 7-month-old advertising blitz that aims to mobilize the community to fight crime and grime.

For all these months, this newspaper has refrained from passing editorial judgment on Baltimore Believe. The reason is simple: We couldn't quite figure out what the well-financed campaign was all about. Some early television commercials, truth be told, even suggested it was a canny attempt to market Mr. O'Malley as a potential gubernatorial candidate.

Over the months, it has become clear that Baltimore Believe is not so much a political gimmick as it is a desperate and well-meaning effort to end the prevailing apathy toward such ingrained problems as addiction, vacant houses, poverty and, yes, many residents' abysmal indifference.

Yesterday, Mr. O'Malley said the Dawson tragedy underlined the importance of Baltimore Believe's core aims: reduction of drug trafficking, drug violence and drug use in the city through all-out community activation. And when you think of it, why wouldn't that make sense? Indeed, citizens and the business community must believe.

But none of this will succeed unless the newly elected governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., also believes.

As power shifts from Democrats to Republicans, two of Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's pet projects are almost sure to get the ax. Neither her HotSpot community crime-fighting initiative nor her Break the Cycle program for drug-addicted criminals fully realized its potential. But they did bring badly needed additional state funds and resources to some of the worst areas of Baltimore.

If Mr. Ehrlich gets rid of them for political reasons, what, if anything, will he replace them with?

This is a question Mayor O'Malley must put to the governor-elect. And he deserves to get a definitive answer. Because, in order to make a difference not only in East Baltimore but throughout the city, the mayor will need all the outside assistance he can get.