Within a block or two are a hospital, a church, a temple, a crisis family center and two day-care centers.

There's even a special bassinet at the hospital, where desperate parents can place a baby, press a button and slip away, no questions asked.

But whoever abandoned the baby girl in this city neighborhood did not turn to those sources of help.

Instead, the person put the baby in the trash, making its final resting place a Dumpster behind the Lancaster Family YMCA, in a non-descript alley lined with chain-link fences, parking lots and garages graffitied with slogans including "Mate Feed Kill."

This week, neighbors near the 500 block of North Queen Street mourned and wondered about the person who may have walked past their front porch, their grocery store or their temple steps on the way to that trash bin.

"We could have helped. We would have helped," said Anne Linkey, program director of Deb's House, a North Duke Street program that finds care for the young children of families in crisis.

Up the street at Shaarai Shomayim Temple, Rabbi Jack Paskoff wondered, "What goes through someone's mind? I'm reluctant to judge."

Like others, he feels sadness for the mother and for the baby.

"One of the things that the Jewish tradition suggests," he said, "is that every newborn child represents the Messianic hope.

"You look what at one one person can accomplish in a lifetime and you wonder what we'll never get to know."

Today, police continue to investigate the situation, trying to locate the baby's mother or anyone who may know her. Detectives canvassed the neighborhood Wednesday, talking to business owners and neighbors.

Police discovered the baby's body Monday when a passerby on narrow North Market Street notified 911 after smelling an odor coming from the Dumpster.

The body, which could have been in the trash for up to six days, was so decomposed authorities could not tell the gender or race of the infant. An autopsy showed it was a girl and police are awaiting results of other tests they hope will tell them more about the child.

Many neighbors and business owners said in interviews Wednesday that they think it's likely the mother could live among them, in an area dotted with businesses that include a steak shop, a barbecue joint, a barber shop, an optical shop, and homes and apartments.

Many neighbors and business owners said in interviews Wednesday that they think it's likely the mother could live among them, in an area dotted with businesses that include a steak shop, a barbecue joint, a barber shop, an optical shop, and homes and apartments.

They wonder how else she would have known about the Dumpster tucked along North Market Street.

Many people wish the mother would have turned to Lancaster General Hospital for help. In the entrance of its emergency room is a special bassinet placed there via the Safe Haven Task Force. Lancaster Regional and Heart of Lancaster Regional medical centers have similar bassinets.

Parents in crisis may put a baby in the bassinet, press a button and walk away. As long as the baby is not hurt, the parents will not face criminal prosecution.

"I'm frustrated that young people in crisis would not know there is another option," said Donna Carr, LGH's prenatal coordinator and Safe Haven's chairwoman.

At the Moonlight Grocery at Queen and James streets, employee Binu Sebastian, whose wife is seven months pregnant and expecting their first child, wondered if the baby's mother's family knew about her situation.

Sebastian is from India, where he said families are often close and support each other in difficult times.

"This could happen anywhere," he said, "but if some friends or family members were there to support her, this should not have happened."

Jim Karpathios, owner of the Steak Out, at Queen and James streets, said someone must have noticed the mother's pregnancy.

"No one was talking to this child?" he asked, adding, "In my mind it's a teen. No one took the time, whether a parent, a teacher?"

At the YMCA, chief executive officer Jeff Kenderdine said the situation points to the need to reach out to others.

"The key for us, for all of us, is to pay attention to your neighbor," he said. "That's what being a neighbor means.

"You hear that it takes a village to raise a child. Here you go. Friends do things for friends and neighbors if they're in a bad spot. Help them out, talk to them, get other people involved."

Next door, at the Owl Hill Learning Center, director Beth Dixon said workers were holding babies closer this week as they grieved the loss of a child practically in their backyard.

"The staff has been really touched by this whole story," she said, "and moved."

Paul Johnson lives at 39 W. James St., a short distance from where the baby's body was discovered. He is a neighborhood block captain.

He said the neighborhood is in the process of installing more than a dozen security cameras. If the cameras had been up, he wonders if one might have captured an image of whoever placed the baby in the Dumpster.

"I'm trying not to be too judgmental," he said. "The baby might have been stillborn."

Across James Street, at Dan the Man Barbecue, worker Eileen Whitfield shook her head.

"That's a hard thought, to think somebody just threw a baby in a Dumpster."

"The human race," she said, "is just going downhill."

CONTACT US: cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024