It was a great front-page photo. Nancy Cole holding one end of a banner that read, "If not us, then who? If not now, then when?" Me holding the other side, followed by about 50 cheering, sign-waving members of the Neighborhood Alliance and, in front, New London Police Department Sgt. Ken Edwards leading us down Brewer Street, which was quickly becoming a trouble spot in this city.

We did not wait for trouble to grow and fester in our neighborhoods. We went out and met it whatever form it took. Selling drugs on our street corners? Let 30 or more of us keep you company while you try to do business.

Absentee landlord of slum houses on our streets? How did you like your name and photos of your properties publicized?

It is how the Neighborhood Alliance, an association of about 40 neighborhood groups from Crystal Avenue in the north end of New London to Thames Street in the south, worked and it was effective.

And in the front lines of the Neighborhood Alliance working to make this community's neighborhoods safer, cleaner, and more appealing  was Nancy Cole, now a candidate for City Council. I urge you to vote for her.

Kathleen Mitchell

New London