Near playgrounds ringed with barbed wire, on streets where drug dealers hawk their wares, Camden residents expressed disgust with the city and its leaders as yet another mayor faced sentencing for corruption.

"I tell my son all the time how sorry I am I brought him here," said Maria Velazquez, 31, standing outside former Mayor Milton Milan's boyhood home at 819 N. 5th St.

All night long, she said, "You can hear the drug dealers yelling," advertising their products and quarreling about who controls the corner, she said.

Just days before Milan's sentencing today in federal court in Camden, many residents said what they most want is a better life. They don't care who runs the city. But there was also anger at what Milan had done.

Directly across from Milan's former home stands the Path Day Center, a temporary shelter for 50 to 75 men addicted mostly to heroin or crack cocaine.

Cindy Muse, 47, a nurse's assistant, said she's not the least bit sorry Milan will be spending at least the next few years in prison.

"I'll be happy as a child on Christmas morning," she said. "He did wrong. He's got to pay."

Milan is the third Camden mayor in the past 20 years to be convicted of corruption. He was expected today to get a sentence of about five years in prison.

"Five years is nothing. He was given the trust of the community, and he betrayed that trust," said the Rev. Salvatore Scuderi, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel/ Fatima Church in South Camden.

To longtime activists like Scuderi, the most discouraging aspect of the Milan sentencing is that it appears to be more business as usual in the city despite the desperate need for change.

Although his church is ringed with barbed wire, Scuderi, known as "Father Sal" to his 1,200 mostly Hispanic parishioners, said his neighborhood is getting safer because police are doing a better job.

But Scuderi urged the Legislature to approve a bill, stalled because of city and county political opposition, that would allow the state to take over the city's daily operations while providing $150 million in aid.

"The state takeover, I think, should be strong and swift. There should be some discussion with city leaders. But let' s face it," Scuderi said, "they've had 30 years, and nothing has happened."

City Councilman Frank Moran, who ran on Milan's slate, said he personally felt sad for the ex-mayor he believed would revitalize the city.

"My prayers are with Milton, his wife and his kids," Moran said. "According to the jury, they found him guilty. Me personally, I don't care to comment on whether he was guilty or not.

Moran sought to focus on what he said were good things Milan did for the city, including resurfacing some city streets.

Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said she had mixed emotions.

"Not being a jury, not knowing, I really don't know if he was guilty. I just feel sorry because I feel that, had it been another way, he could have really done a decent job," she said. "Certainly, my thoughts go out to his family, to his children."

The continuing corruption in Camden, residents said, shows how important it is for city leaders like Faison to step aside and let the state take over the city.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a beautiful thing that the state wants to do," said Edward Thomas, 66, as he leaned forward on a lounge chair. "Because they have so many crooks in the government, stealing the money. They need an overseer. They need somebody."

Added Lou Tortu, owner of Tortu's Pizza Shell Co. on South Fifth Street, "City government's a disgrace, a total and absolutely horrendous situation."

He said he offered to buy a city-owned, trash-strewn vacant lot nine years ago.

"They said that property was worth $250,000! You can only say one thing when you get a response like that: `Bye! See ya!'"

Sitting on her brightly painted, red-and-white porch, in a neighborhood where half the homes are vacant, Lona Carter, a 74-year-old grandmother, also talked about the need for change. The city has allowed rusted cars and bags of trash to accumulate nearby.

"I don't know what the state would do," she said, "or anything about the mayor. All I know is one thing: We need somebody to come in and make this city some place to live."