Springwood Avenue and the city's southwest quadrant -- popularly known as the "West Side" -- look very different today.

In a town where approximately 23% of the population (and 42% of the children) live below the poverty level, Asbury Park's southwest quadrant is the most impoverished and densely populated area of the city. Neatly maintained homes sit side-by-side with boarded-up shells (many of them abandoned after the 1997 property-flipping scandal) and overgrown, trash-strewn lots that often serve as pass-throughs for drug dealers.

In a town of only 1.7 square miles, a surprising number of Asbury Park residents know very little about their city's West Side. The rush of enthusiastic home-buying on our north side and the large-scale rehabilitation of downtown businesses have largely bypassed the city's southwest quadrant. At least, so far.

Because -- even though they've received less publicity than the beachfront and the downtown pioneers -- the neighbors, business owners and devotees of the West Side have been quietly working on a plan that rivals even our large-scale beachfront dreams.

It all began in 1998 when Hazel Samuels, the city's Director of Housing and Community Development and a longtime city employee, unveiled a sweeping new vision for the West Side.

Like many others in Asbury Park, Samuels saw new homes in place of dilapidated ones, playgrounds in place of overgrown lots, and bustling new businesses and an elementary school on and around Springwood Avenue.

Unlike many before her, however, she knew that physical improvements alone would not be sufficient to turn the community around. Her proposed STARS ("Strategic Target Area Rebuilding Spirit") program was intended to rebuild the spirit of the community, as well as its buildings, and to give the West Side its own distinct voice.

From the beginning, Samuels actively involved community members in the redevelopment process, working with architect James Watts to collect residents' memories and to define their dream community, from expanded lots sizes and new street lights to opening dead-end streets and installing fiber optic connections in each house.

And from that simple beginning three years ago, the STARS Steering Committee -- composed of community members, church-goers, business people, and friends of the West Side -- has continued to meet every Monday from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the True Vine Baptist Church on DeWitt Avenue to nurture that dream.

What motivates them? Writes Barbara Whittaker, STARS treasurer and chairman of the group's Bricks and Mortar Committee, "I am a lifelong resident of this community. I am a homeowner and I raised my family here. I want to do all I can to bring back the thriving community I once knew and loved."

And Samuels' and the community's persistent faith -- in the face of ever-changing staff and shifting political visions at city hall -- is finally paying off.

After three years of networking with county, state and national organizations and of developing skills in areas like bookkeeping and fund-raising, the STARS Steering Committee recently incorporated itself as the STARS Community Development Corporation (CDC) and is applying for a 501(c)3, non-profit designation.

According to the group's president, Rev. Carl F. Hunter II, this means that the neighborhood group can apply for grants aimed at job training, community education and recreation, as well as housing rehabilitation. One especially timely proposal, the "Subcontractor Readiness Proposal", would help local contractors and vendors -- including small but capable minority-owned and women-owned businesses -- gain sufficient knowledge and opportunity to participate in all phases of the city's redevelopment.

And this summer, after intensive research and interviews, city officials and CDC members jointly recommended the Ingerman Group -- a Cherry Hill firm with an impressive track record for developing attractive, affordable housing -- to develop Phase I of the STARS program: approximately 36 detached, single-family homes to be built south of Springwood Avenue on Atkins Avenue, Borden Avenue, Adams Street, and Avenue A. (Commercial development and a new school are slated for Phases II and III.)

One advantage of the Ingerman Group, according to Hunter, is that they are sensitive to working with minorities and small subcontractors. They also "stick build" houses from the ground up, a process which provides more opportunity for training, participation, and the purchase of goods from local suppliers than the use of "modular built" homes.

Better yet, Hunter said that Ingerman's concept of affordable housing "isn't like a box; it's more like scaled-down market-rate housing". (And if you've never seen how beautiful affordable housing can be, check out the new home at 160 Ridge Avenue, now being completed by Interfaith Neighbors, in cooperation with New Jersey Natural Gas, the Asbury Park Youth Corps and the City of Asbury Park. It could hold its own in any corner of town.)

Of course, the process will not be short or easy. The city is currently negotiating with the Ingerman firm, and hopefully a contract will be approved within 90 days. In coming weeks, CDC representatives will also knock on doors throughout the STARS redevelopment zone, personally inviting people to a November 5 community information meeting -- the first of many as redevelopment begins.

And Hazel Samuels will personally visit each household in the Phase I zone to begin determining their needs and housing preferences in preparation for the necessary but painful process of relocating people whose homes will be razed to accommodate the new housing. Displaced residents will be given the option to purchase a newly built home, and Samuels has already begun a city-sponsored training program to help first-time buyers prepare for the responsibilities of home ownership.

So here's what I'm asking: The STARS program is a major opportunity for all of us. Spend some time learning about the West Side, if you're not familiar with it. And, if you live or work there, get involved in the upcoming meetings.

And thank your friends and neighbors -- people like Hazel Samuels and CDC members Sandee Bowen, Angie Brown, Audrey Clark, Sheila German, Sam Glover, Bradley Green, Eli Green, Sheila German, Marilyn Griffin, William Griffin, Carl Hunter, David Sanders, Carl Simms, Marion Stephens, Amanda Sturdivant, Barbara Whittaker, and the countless others who believe enough in their community to devote hundreds of hours to their dream.

They are our unsung heroes.