Where a city sees decay, a fight to save a community

Charlestown, US

WHAT is left of Pleasant Ridge, a neighbourhood of prefabricated World War II-era homes, sometimes belies its mellifluous name. Some of these tiny duplexes are battered by wear, holes in their sides. Dogs growl in cluttered yards. On a recent early afternoon, a woman stumbled down a street here muttering curses, as the words "Call your officer now!" emanated loudly, again and again, apparently from her ankle monitor.

Leaders of Charlestown, a city of 8,000 in southern Indiana across the Ohio River from Kentucky, say that it is time to remake the Pleasant Ridge section of town. These homes, built for workers at a local Army munition plant, were never meant to be permanent, they say, and are simply unsafe after more than 70 years.