At the epicenter of a surge in deadly violence, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl this morning led staff through Homewood's troubled alleys, like Formosa Way and Fleury Way, and on to Race Street, scene of last week's fatal shooting of Antwann Jackson, 21.

Mr. Ravenstahl offered a block-by-block attack on the physical decay and growing lawlessness. He said his administration is working with community groups on "just trying to give hope to specific blocks, or two blocks at a time. We come in and put all of our resources into two blocks, clean them up, show people we're serious, and move on to the next two blocks."

Mr. Ravenstahl was there on one of his Taking Care of Business tours -- walk-throughs that usually end with a promise of a few street trees here, a decorative lamp there, and maybe some new trash cans. Homewood was different.

"Overwhelmingly, the response from the business owners here was, that stuff is all good, it's needed, it's necessary, but we'll give it all back for more police presence and public safety," the mayor said. "Safety is the number one issue. Because if you don't feel safe, and you don't feel your investment is going to thrive, you're not going to put your money there."

On Formosa, where bodies have fallen for years, police Commander Larry Ross talked about the difficulty of rooting out the drug trade from an alley with no lights, a scared population, and a nightly surge in traffic.

"They'll come down here and do their business and disperse," he said. "So we wait at the periphery and pick them up." And then they come back.

Mr. Ravenstahl said a Public Works Department crew would be there to clean up tomorrow.

On Fleury Way, state Rep. Joe Preston, D-East Liberty, told Mr. Ravenstahl that worst-in-a-decade body counts may be the result of good police work.

"As violence increases, it tells me in a sense that the police have increased their arrest record," Mr. Preston reiterated to the media on Race Street. "Because instead of just one person controlling an area, you have four or five people fighting for that same territory. So when the police are doing their job, you've got four or five people who conflict through violence to try to take over" that area.

"Our country is in sad economic times," said Councilman Ricky Burgess, who represents Homewood. "And these sad economic times breed hopelessness, which is the breeding ground of crime and violence."