"This block really was a mess. The garbage was piled up on the sidewalks a foot high. Now look at it -- no garbage, the streets are clean, people are fixing up their property and the city is even rebuilding the sidewalks."

In short, according to Wade Burns, architect and neighborhood resident, the future looks good for Atlanta's West End. Another equally enthusiastic resident is Monsignor Eusebius J. Beltran, Pastor of Saint Anthony's parish which is located right in the center of this historic Atlanta neighborhood.

The pastor and the architect are involved in separate projects to revitalize the neighborhood, but they share the same vision: a living West End, a neighborhood which combines the best of business activity and residential leisure. They want to see this urban area become self-supporting and able to assimilate all economic, racial and cultural distinctions.

Burns is not the only one with illustrations of how things have improved for this once proud, once humbled, now determined community. Monsignor Beltran gives this example: "When I first came to Saint Anthony's people were afraid to go out after dark. I scheduled parish meetings in the evenings and people told me it wouldn't work. Nobody would show up, they insisted." It took a while he admits, but now parishioners do indeed come out for evening meetings.

The revitalization of the area is one of the common goals of the parish organizations. Take the Friendship Club for example. This began as an attempt to serve the needs of the senior citizens of the West End. Monthly trips are planned and assistance is offered in such problems as getting to the doctor and using food stamps.

Somewhere along the way, however, things just started getting bigger. A lunch program grew out of the club's efforts. For 50 cents, anyone can come in for a daily lunch in the church basement. This is no "soup kitchen" and the clientele represents a cross section of the entire area. More than 100 regularly show up to eat at Saint Anthony's. Also, nearly 30 free meals are provided each day for those who can't afford to pay.

Those involved in the lunch program point to it as a model of what they would like to see the neighborhood become -- self supporting, but with room for all types of people; a community which can live with the contradictions of contemporary life.

"This is the beginning of a broad aspect of programs," one volunteer asserted, "we have hopes in the future for a clothing store and a furniture shop, perhaps even a day care center."

Out in the neighborhood, the architect, Burns, is making his point: the West End has a future and that future can be realized without outside help or interference. He initiated the West End Restoration Project and he is the man who runs it. He went out and secured a loan and began buying houses; old houses which had been well used (run down). He could have stopped at this point, become an absentee landlord and rented out dingy apartments to the unprotected poor. Instead, he fixed up one house and moved in first thing.

Next, he brought in his drawing board and began planning the reconstruction of the West End starting with his own block.

He pushed ahead with the design and hired contractors to restore the original beauty of one of Atlanta's oldest residential neighborhoods. This is strictly private enterprise and his efforts are increasing the local tax base by a factor of 5, he insists.

He will take you on a tour of his block and show you homes in the "before, during and after” stages. Next, he proudly points out homes across the street. He doesn’t own these structures, but they are looking good. He explains that the residents began their own improvements when they saw what was being done across the street. "I'll take care of this block and the next block takes care of itself," he asserts.

The social implications are unlimited in Burns' vision. The problems originally faced were the imbalance of low-income families and the fact that less than 10 percent of the homes were occupied by their owners. "This area was considered unchangeable by everybody. Even the government would not take on such a project," he stressed. "This is not just white reclamation of real estate. This neighborhood is, and will remain, integrated. We have some residents around here who have lived in the same homes since the turn of the century."

Though the pastor and the architect don't work together in any official capacity, they are friends and they share a vision: to see the West End become an attractive place to live and work.

"This parish is now numerically small," Monsignor Beltran says of Saint Anthony's, "but we're active." The parochial school added an eighth grade this year and enrollment is up by 100 from three years ago. It is full to capacity. "We don't even announce registration anymore," he said. When the parish recently sponsored a Vietnamese family, things worked out just fine. Even Monsignor Beltran expressed surprise that they were so rapidly assimilated into West End life.

"There is less fear here. There has been a noticeable improvement in the appearance of private property. In the evening it is a quiet and homey place."

This is a great place to live. It is the most convenient location in Metropolitan Atlanta. It's too bad more people don't realize it," Monsignor Beltran stated.