The city of Savannah is turning to psychological warfare in the battle on blight. You might be familiar with their clean sweep efforts that target rundown and trashy properties.

Their latest weapon? A book designed to win hearts and minds. Woodville neighborhood president Tyrone Ware is very proud of his community and is glad to share everything he knows.
 
“My pastor is 86 years old and he has served for 46 years in that church.”

The city says more folks like Tyrone will mean a cleaner Savannah, so they put the history of three Westside neighborhoods into a book. Why is the city paying to publish this book?

Michelle Hunter with the City of Savannah says, “The department of cultural affairs is part of the infrastructure, and we're trying to address the issues of communications with citizens and the issue of blight eradication.”
 
So what good is a bunch of old pictures in the war on blight?
 
“In order for an area to become blighted, something has to occur. there has to be this shift from prioritizing the value of the neighborhood to not caring as much,” says Hunter.
 
In other words, if you know how important your community is, you are more likely to take pride in it and keep it clean. That's the theory, anyway.

Looking at the book and companion website, there is a lot out here to be proud of -- people and events that shaped our city, state and nation.

“Come to this area, dig a little deeper and find even more history because we are very relevant,” says Ware.

In addition to Woodville, the histories of West Savannah and Hudson Hill neighborhoods are included in "Low Land and the High Road."

The book and website will both be released to the public in June. We'll let you know where you can find it.