Chris Coduto/Arizona Daily Wildcat Miracle Manor Neighborhood Association President Jim Quinn (right) has a conversation with Sleepy Hollow mobile home park owner Jim Cunningham. Cunningham was adamant that his mobile home park was full of law-abiding people.

Wind blows through a cluster of abandoned motor homes. A professor and three hopeful students stand in the midst of it, assessing the area with eagle eyes.

Professor Barbara Becker's urban planning class will craft plans during the next semester to transform the low-income neighborhood northwest of West Grant Road and North Oracle Road into an area worth living in.

The group is part of a tour organized by James Quinn, president of Miracle Manor Neighborhood Association. Quinn is determined to better his neighborhood's appearance and to eliminate crime, and he approached the UA for help.

Becker, a professor in the planning degree program at the department for geography and regional development, said she has done a number of projects as part of the UA being a land grant university, which is committed to community outreach including planning and research projects.

"It's a lot of fun to work with the students. They are so enthusiastic," Becker said. "I'm looking forward to a finished plan at the end of the semester."

Meanwhile, Jim Cunningham, resident manager of the Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Estates, joins the group with a gun at his side - he is leery of the people.

"The whole thing here is about shutting Sleepy Hollow down," Cunningham said. "Nobody is going to bring a new trader into this place, nobody."

The manager is protective of his property and of its residents: people, "honest and hard working," he points out, who might have to leave the area if it gets spiffed up. He said crime is a big factor everywhere in Tucson and that his area is not that bad after all.

"There is drug activities in Tucson more than in Nogales, Mexico," Cunningham said. "People are getting shot and stabbed. The ice cream man is getting murdered."

But Becker said it would be very important for the plan to offer some affordable housing opportunities, because housing prices have been shooting up lately.

"I think that's something we always worry about when tearing down an area. We don't want to displace people."

Nathan Barrett, a second-year graduate student in the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, said he found talking to the manager educational and interesting.

"My heart goes out to those people. Any sort of neighborhood improvement project is going to raise property value," Barrett said. "That's something we try to avoid. If someone gets forced out we hope it's on the criminal side."

Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford, D-Tucson, who also paid a visit, said there might be some necessary changes happening in the neighborhood, and it is important people participate in the project.

"It's wonderful that the UA has gotten involved. It's a great opportunity," Cajero Bedford said. "The more people are working on it, the better."

Lt. Jenny Schroeder, with the operations division west of the Tucson Police Department, said the neighborhood has been long known as "a place where the hookers went," and there were problems with drugs. Together with the residents, they now work to eradicate the problems, Schroeder said.

"Over the last two or three years we have seen some improvement," Schroeder said. "(Residents) are looking for ways to make the neighborhood pleasurable again. And we've got a great resource with the UA."