To the surprise of 60 North Siders yesterday, the city made short work of their clean-up of the Anderson Street underpass.

A cavern of misadventure for decades, its sidewalk looked polished in the filtered sunlight. Weeds on the eroding hillside were shorn.

"The stars converged in the last 48 hours," said John Canning, a neighborhood resident who joined the protest and clean-up spearheaded by Northside United. "We've been working on underpass issues for more than a decade and [with every new development], we are always promised that these linkages will be made clear, bright and inviting."

Coincidental or not, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's request for federal approval to improve underpasses Thursday came on the heels of the protest call, and the city's public works department cleaned the Anderson Street passage Friday.

Yesterday's volunteers included a dozen teenagers who still found trash and weeds to bag, but verbiage outweighed garbage as speakers challenged the city to make good on the commitment.

"A year from now, we're going to have a ribbon cutting or I'll expect all of you to raise some hell," the Rev. Dave McFarland of the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church told the crowd.

"Even with the work the city did yesterday," said Mr. Canning, "it isn't very inviting. We've just discovered there is indeed a sidewalk" coming out from the underpass, "but it's buried under three inches of crap that's settled from the hillside. People have to walk through mud."

The mayor's underpass plan -- new sidewalks, curbs, lighting, painting and landscaping -- would start with $1.8 million for the Anderson Street passage, which leads to 9th Street and the Rachel Carson bridge. The Sandusky Street underpass, which leads to 7th Street and the Andy Warhol Bridge, would follow.

Two other underpasses -- on Federal and Merchant Streets -- serve as gateways from Downtown to the North Side.

Will Tompkins, a member of Northside United and the North Side Old Timers, thanked the youth. Besides clean-ups, they are collecting signatures on a petition for a community benefits agreement Northside United is seeking with Continental Real Estate over their proposal to build a hotel on the North Shore.

"We have to make sure our young people have a better life," said Mr. Tompkins. Addressing the young people, he said, "Take this attitude of cleaning up back to your street. Put garbage in the garbage can."