Sue Schmidt surveyed the garden she created three years ago between two brick buildings in a drug-plagued neighborhood.

The once crime- and drug-plagued neighborhood has seemed on the upswing in recent years.

Thousands more are banding together to clean up their drug-plagued neighborhoods and to reclaim their streets.

Ayuso was born in Puerto Rico, moved to the South Bronx, then was sent to Roswell, N.M., in a program that rescued him from a drug-plagued neighborhood.

At P.S. 88, a small red-brick fortress in a drug-plagued neighborhood in Melrose, Mr. Fisher credited teachers and parents with turning around the school's scores.

Even under the best of circumstances, overburdened and underpaid caseworkers have to deal with drug-plagued neighborhoods and threats of violence from angry relatives.

The police responded to Officer Byrne's murder by establishing the Tactical Narcotics Teams, squads of undercover officers assigned to sweep dealers off the streets in drug-plagued neighborhoods.

Many homeless mothers will not accept apartments in the city's drug-plagued neighborhoods.

Turning the theory of how to fight the drug trade upside down, police departments around the country are increasingly blanketing drug-plagued neighborhoods with officers and arresting large numbers of small-time dealers and buyers.

It recommends pilot programs in nine drug-plagued neighborhoods.