As people rush by in the cars, it's tough to tell much is happening along a one-mile stretch of Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh's East End that runs from Highland Avenue to Mathilda Avenue.

		The profiles To thrive, make a place for the young Artist could be a poster child for initiative School offers safe haven, opportunity, lessons for life Baltimore native brings 'vision thing' to Penn Avenue

Boarded up windows, graffiti and vacant buildings seem to be everywhere along the thoroughfare, which stretches from East Liberty to Friendship, Garfield and Bloomfield. Whether in cars or on foot, many people hurry through, afraid to tarry in what can look like a potentially threatening area.

But if they were to look closer, listen and even stop, they would see that things are happening in what is known as the Penn Avenue Corridor. Music drifts from the former Studebaker car dealership, where Dance Alloy's graceful dancers rehearse on a highly polished wood floor in a studio. Sparks fly at Red Star Ironworks, a new, growing metal working company in a former auto repair shop.

In a nearby office, architectural plans for lofts and other housing are splayed across draft tables -- another project that will add to the growing list of new housing. Construction on 60 units of affordable housing for senior citizens, for example, is slated to begin next year at the site of a former Eat'n Park, where a separate structure with up to 20 loft apartments also will be built. Rothschild Doyno Architects, of Regent Square, is designing the senior housing, while architect Arthur Lubitz is doing the loft project.

"I'm already working with two new restaurants, one upscale supper club and a manufacturing company," said Jim Schneider, a business consultant for the local nonprofit development groups working to improve the corridor. "There's a whole slew of interest in the area right now with companies wanting to bring their businesses there."

After a long period of decline, this once bustling East End commercial strip is exhibiting signs of vitality again, aided by attractive real estate prices and that fact it has remained a heavy traffic corridor.

It helps that it is wedged between two up-and-coming neighborhoods -- East Liberty with its new retail stars Home Depot and Whole Foods, and Friendship with its large, newly renovated homes that are popular with families. But perhaps the most important asset is the collection of organizations and programs that are spearheading the district's transformation.

These include the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, a program of the Friendship Development Associates that helps artists purchase buildings and start studios and businesses in them. Since 1999, the initiative has provided roughly $130,000 in grants and loans to artists, generating some $6.4 million in additional investment. And there is no shortage of interesting buildings available for rehabilitation at prices that are hard to pass up -- some structures have been fetched for as little as $7,000 through the initiative.

Also playing key roles have been Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., a full-service community development organization that provides neighborhood advocacy, revitalization and business development services, as well as youth programs; Friendship Development, which sponsors the arts initiative with Bloomfield-Garfield and does bricks-and-mortar projects; and Friendship Preservation, a sister advocacy group that does preservation work.

Members of the organizations often can be found at the Quiet Storm Coffee House, a popular gathering spot, local stage and "town square" that serves creative vegetarian dishes and provides play space for children while parents share their neighborhood visions -- or just plop in a chair for a cup of joe.

"There's so much vacant and blighted stuff here and so much dirt that you see before you see the gems," said Jeffrey Dorsey, the arts initiative's arts district manager. So much so that the initiative has launched a monthly program -- "Unblurred: First Fridays On Penn" -- to highlight the local galleries, artist studios, restaurants and arts organizations.

"What we wanted to do is allow people to see things unblurred, hence the name for the monthly events. We want people to connect the gems."

To be sure, there are some difficulties still to be tackled along the corridor, led by its rundown, potentially unsafe image and the inability of neighborhood groups to get an accurate read on the local population and makeup.

Even though city crime statistics suggest life along the corridor isn't dangerous, it still is hurt by stories about gang activity in parts of some of the neighborhoods that it serves.

Moreover, the 2000 Census included many irregularly shaped census tracts that overlapped neighborhood boundaries, making it hard to assemble data that often is critical when seeking grants and loans. And the data that is available seems out of date -- the latest figures are from 1999, and a lot has changed since then, said Schneider, the consultant.

He and Dorsey have begun listing all the properties from Negley to Mathilda in the corridor "to get an idea of how many vacant areas there are, the number of buildings under construction and how many are for sale," Schneider said. "And we want to keep that information regularly updated."

Dorsey also would like to see better lighting to enhance the sense of safety, and better larger signs to boost accessibility and visibility along the corridor. "Thousands of cars go through the district all day, and ... as long as we can make them feel welcome in the neighborhood, they will stop," he said.

Schneider is focusing on finding "some supportive businesses for the area, such as grocery stores, drugstores and things that are more beneficial to people in the area."

"It's nice to have galleries, but we need other businesses as well to increase foot traffic on a daily basis," he said.

There has been progress on that front. National City recently opened a bank branch, while the Children's Home of Pittsburgh, which provides adoption and pediatric extended care services, is building an $18.6 million center on the site of a former St. Joseph Nursing & Health Care Center.

Other higher-profile ventures that have or soon will come include PCTV, the public access cable channel, which is opening its studios and headquarters along the corridor late next year, and Pittsburgh Glass Center, which some acknowledge to be the country's premier center for blown glass, which opened three years ago.

The Dance Alloy is a relative old-timer, having relocated to the corridor in 1996 from Oakland, and the shift by the dance company has resulted in higher ticket sales and better attendance to classes for children, said Sally Sherman, managing director.

"Our class enrollments have actually gone up," she said. "We actually budgeted ourselves to feel a decline because of perceptions about our location. We had worried whether the people and families who used to go to Oakland for us would be willing to bring the kids here for classes. We've just been thrilled."

The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, at the eastern end of the corridor across from East Liberty Presbyterian Church, has 73 percent of its booking dates filled for the 12-month period ending Aug. 31, a good number of dates taken for 2006 and 2007, and even some bookings for 2008, said Robert Neu, general manager.

And when patrons get hungry they now have two new upscale restaurants to enjoy nearby -- the Red Room and Abay, an Ethiopian restaurant. Long lines to get in are not unusual at either place.

All of this strengthens locals' beliefs that people no longer are reluctant to head out to the corridor for activities.

"There just seems to be a nice churning of people here who all want to make the neighborhood work," said Paul Fireman, president of Carney Fireman, a commercial advertising firm.