When Brenda Toyloy sent questionnaires to Newark's Weequahic Park section asking what people would like to see most in their neighborhood, increased police presence was No. 1, but also near the top was more street lighting.

"It's dark. People who commit crimes want to do it in the dark," she said.

With yesterday's announcement that Weequahic is one of five neighborhoods that will participate in a pilot program allowing residents to target their problems and get help from City Hall in solving them, Toyloy hopes for brighter days ahead.

Called the Super Neighborhood Community Covenant, the program will bring together community-based organizations in area councils that will prioritize concerns. The councils will allow neighborhood groups to join forces in solving problems and gain better access to city services.

"If we are going to turn this city around, improve safety, improve basic quality of life, we need each other," said Modia Butler, president of Newark Now. The group, founded by Mayor Cory Booker, partnered with the city to implement the Super Neighborhood concept.

In addition to Weequahic Park, the other pilot neighborhood councils are Springfield/Belmont, the North Ironbound, Lincoln Park and Forest Hill.

Deputy Mayor Margarita Muniz said 13 applications from groups representing 2,800 residents were received for the five spots in the pilot program, demonstrating that residents, community-based organizations and faith-based organizations are eager to get involved.

"We are all great individually, but we have to have one common, centralized goal, and we have to begin to work and coordinate with one another," Booker said.

Butler said he was exposed to the concept for Super Neighborhoods by Leadership Newark, a two-year fellowship program that helps professionals debate and propose solutions to public policy questions.

The Super Neighborhoods concept is being implemented successfully in Houston, Texas, and fellows from Leadership Newark took a trip there to observe. One of those fellows was former North Ward Councilman Hector Corchado, who began to implement the program in his area in 2004.

The goal, Butler said, is to add five neighborhoods per year until Newark has 20 Super Neighborhood Councils covering most of the city. Verizon awarded Newark a $100,000 grant yesterday to fund the program.

Longtime community activists said they were excited about the concept.

Their issues cover the gambit of problems facing the city -- from increased ability to participate in the development process to more programs for youth and increased drug prevention and treatment programs.

"A lot of groups have been doing things, just not collectively," said Wilbur McNeil, president of the Weequahic Park Association, whose group has raised at least $4 million in grants for the park.

Some of the issues McNeil said he would bring to the council are protecting the area from airport pollution and working to preserve open space.

Anyanwu Carter, director of the Central Ward Community Collaborative, said unemployment and crime are major issues in his ward and the rest of the city.

Carter said he was glad to hear there would be financial support for the groups and hopeful the initiative means the Booker administration would join with existing community groups.

"We need the city to remember the organizations that have been here doing good work," Carter said. "People see the city changing and don't know where they fit in."

Police Director Garry McCarthy said the Super Neighborhoods concept is in line with what the police department is trying to do. McCarthy recently announced the formation of a narcotics division as a way to reduce murders, which hit 106 in 2006 -- the most in more than a decade.

"When we do good police work and reduce crime, we need a solid community to turn that geography over to and to hold it while we move on to other areas," McCarthy said. Each precinct commander will be charged with responding to the neighborhood council in his or her district.

Aside from lighting, Toyloy said she had a list of issues she thinks her group might address. They include getting adults and local celebrities more involved with men toring children, and additional recreation programs. Already, neighborhood residents, as well as the local branch of the library and Maple Avenue School, have agreed to collaborate.

"We have to do it," Toyloy said. "We don't have a choice."