The area around Patterson Park is a much different landscape than when the Patterson Park Community Development Corp. was launched 10 years ago.

At that time, the neighborhood was in a severe state of deterioration, overrun by drugs and most people probably wouldn’t have walked outside at night. Today, though, the organization?s Founder and Executive Director, Ed Rutkowski, says the community is evidence that “once a neighborhood starts to decline, it doesn’t have to end that way, it doesn’t have to get worse.”