TULSA -- A group of community members near 61st and Peoria are working to change the image of the neighborhood.
The intersection has made headlines for years as a high crime area, but residents at Savanna Landing, a HUD housing apartment complex, are pushing for change.
They say great minds think alike. A group of community members discuss the same goal twice a week at the South Tulsa Community House.
"Whenever they mention the name of this area they associate it with bad things," Savanna Landing resident Ella Marshall said.
Residents near 61st and Peoria are planning a block party to "Ignite the Change."
"We had a lot of standing around, drug selling and stuff like that and you couldn't walk down the street without someone trying to sell you drugs," Marshall said.
They say it's to curb the misconstrued image of the neighborhood.
"I used to be in a gang," former Savanna Landing resident Timothy Carter said. "I was raised in foster care. I didn't have a mom or dad, but my life got changed."
Last month, a 25-year-old was arrested for three homicides at Savanna Landing, where violence has become commonplace.
"If we can change people's mindsets and we can change people's hearts, then there can be change," Carter said.
Just last Thursday there was a shooting a few blocks down the road at Tamarack Place Apartments.
"Do something positive for this area so that people quit looking at us in a bad way," Marshall said.
The group of community members are ready to put the past behind.
"For the kids, if you've never seen anything different then what you're experiencing you don't know anything else out there exists," Kirk of the Hills local Outreach coordinator Emma Smith said.
Together the group is working to alter a persona.
The block party is Nov. 4 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
There will be a memorial wall to remember those who've died due to violence.
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