When city leaders in Boston set out last spring to renew their focus on violence prevention, they set a modest goal: reduce homicides by 20 percent in three years. Yet the longer the quiet has persisted, the more pressure the city has felt to sustain it. As summer set in with a blistering heat wave, anxiety rose. Will a seasonal uptick in violence shatter the preternatural calm? “But we are doing so many things, and hopefully it is having an impact.”

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Persons: Luck, We’re, ” Michael Cox Organizations: Boston Locations: Boston