BATON ROUGE - Several members of the community came together Thursday night to share ideas on how to make their neighborhood safer.

"Not a hood, not inner city, not ghost town, we are a neighborhood. So we are striving to put neighbor back on hood," Community Advocate Pearl Porter said.

Porter says she would like to see different places within the area restored.

"The bowling alley, they used to have that; we used to have two theaters when I moved here in '72, two theaters. We had a skating rink close around; I would like to see stuff like that back in our community, have some activity, " Porter said.

Activities, she believes, would help curb some of the violence in the community.

Ramona Johnson says she has been living in the 70805 for over four decades. She says one of her main concerns is the youth violence.

"Just blatantly and openly walking up and down the streets with the guns, and there are a lot of gunshots at night, some of them close, sometimes they are from a distance," Johnson said.

Johnson blames part of the issue on the state's gun laws.

"Okay, if weapons are the problem, why would you authorize a child who have not matured to know how to handle a weapon, you made this legal," Johnson said.

During the meeting, some residents suggested having more law enforcement presence in areas where the youth visit most.

"They're afraid to go to the little gym over here on Howell Park, the little recreation place, where you ride your bicycle, you don't see our children over there," one resident said.

Porter says they are open to working with city officials in hopes of moving their community forward.

"We want to let them understand, hey, we love our community, we want our community better, and we're going to get out here and work with whatever initiative y'all have; we're going to work with you all to make it better," Porter said.

Mayor Sid Edwards says his office is working hard to help out the North Baton Rouge community.

"The most important thing is people taking ownership of their community; this is their neighborhood, this is their community, and almost all the people here want to do well, they want to live peacefully, and they want to live in a good, clean area, and they are no different than anyone on the other side of town," Edwards said.

This was not the last 70805 community meeting. There are more scheduled in the future, as they work to make their community better.