Monroe Avenue hasn't been high on the city's list of priorities, says Carolyn Curry, head of the Monroe Village Task Force - a coalition that includes businesses, residents, and the arts. But Curry says she's willing to believe that can change.

Curry attended an open house last week put on by the Southeast Quadrant Team. Each city quadrant has a team made up of a housing specialist, economic development specialist, architect, city planner, and others, located at Quadrant Service Centers.

It's all part of a reorganization that combined the city's economic development department, community development department, and Neighborhood Service Centers into the new Department of Neighborhood and Business Development. The move will save the city about $1.2 million annually, officials say.

Curry says she went to the open house hoping to better understand the reorganization and how it might affect her group. She's always concerned that the city's attention will tilt too heavily in favor of business at the expense of neighborhoods, she says. But she came away from the open house cautiously encouraged.

"I was pretty impressed," she says. "I thought they deserve a chance."

Curry says she asked the team's economic development specialist about his commitment to the neighborhoods after hearing him talk up his responsibility to southeast businesses.

"I said, ‘Well, can you work with the neighborhood?'" Curry says.

The specialist, Matt McCarthy, assured her that he could. And Curry says that she believes him.

"He's always been very, very attentive," she says. "I sure would like to give him a chance to help us."

While Curry's optimism is somewhat guarded, other neighborhood leadersare more enthusiastic about the reorganization.

"It's just so much easier," says Helen Hogan, executive director of the South East Area Coalition. "When we were originally working with City Hall, we were running around to all the departments trying to figure out what's going on. And now we've got all these groups together."

Barbara Sullivan, former head of the 19th Ward Community Association, agrees.

"It's better customer service, from my perspective," she says.