By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter was in the Point Breeze section of the city today, discussing crime reduction strategies with community members.

John Farrell, deputy managing director of Philly Rising, says Point Breeze is one of the neighborhoods where his agency has brought in resources to help the community.

“Philly Rising is a new way the city is doing business,” Farrell explains, “where we’re working with residents to respond to their concerns and then take the city resources and coordinate how we deliver them in those areas.”

He says Philly Rising centers on non-police city services, and in its first year and half has already seen positive results:

“In the first pilot area in North Philadelphia, by 8th and Cumberland, the first ten months we were there we saw a 15.9 percent decrease in crime from the year before.”

Adele Mack, who has been involved in helping to facilitate some of those improvements in her Point Breeze neighborhood, says, “We cleaned our alleys, we cleaned our blocks, and they came in to help us make (better) security in our alleyways.”

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(A recently cleaned alleyway in Point Breeze provides fewer opportunities for crime. Credit: Hadas Kuznits)

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Today, the group took Mayor Nutter on a tour of their neighborhood.

“It reaffirms what I’ve known for a long time: people care passionately about their community,” the mayor said afterward.

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