Maybe Charles Dickens had it right, at least when it comes to the city of Chester.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Last Saturday thousands streamed into the city on what could only be described as a picture-perfect day.

They strolled the city’s glistening waterfront as part of the county’s annual Riverfront Ramble.

It’s there, along the Delaware River, that this struggling city’s turnaround is most evident.

From Harrah’s Casino & Racetrack on the Eddystone border, all the way to the Wharf at Rivertown, evidence can be seen that Chester is on the rebound.

And there, literally in the shadow of the Commodore Barry Bridge, is the unmistakable evidence of a soccer stadium rising from what was once another proud emblem of the city’s industrial might, the Sun Ship yards.

The stadium will house the Philadelphia Union, the region’s entry into Major League Soccer. Their name says Philly, but they will call Chester home. The team recently cemented its relationship with the city by locating its corporate offices in the Wharf at Rivertown. It is looking to bond with residents by loaning one of its own to the Chester Upland School District to develop a soccer program.

Next spring, hopefully, 18,500 soccer fanatics will do exactly what those thousands of sun-splashed fun seekers did last Saturday. They will swarm into the city.

There is unmistakable evidence that Chester is once again going to be a major league destination.

There also, unfortunately, is proof that the city continues to have a major league image problem.

A little more than 24 hours after those throngs took part in the Riverfront Ramble, another familiar sight was taking place on a city playground. It is literally the sights and sounds of a late-summer night. Kids shooting hoops on a playground, while a crowd mulls around.

What happened next, unfortunately, was all too familiar to residents of the city.

A car pulled up to the playground. Gunshots rang out. Five people were hit. Felix Pizarro, 19, described by those who knew him as a “sweet kid with a big smile,” died of his injuries.

Police refer to the incident as “senseless.” Pizarro was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was not alone. There were about 100 people gathered in Pulaski Park at the time of the shooting.

If Saturday’s events proved what Chester Mayor Wendell Butler often voices about his town’s image, that the city needs to show people they can come into the city, go about their business and return home safely, then the events of Sunday night show the challenge that remains.

More importantly, it shows something else.

The turnaround of Chester is dramatic. But it cannot succeed only in some parts of the city, and it cannot exclude the people who live there.

The people gathered in that park Sunday night have just as much right to believe they are safe as the crowds who strolled the city’s waterfront on Saturday.

Pizarro’s death was the city’s ninth homicide this year. Even in that incredibly sad statistic, there is hope. This time last year the city had recorded 16 murders.

Chester is on the road back. The county is rediscovering this jewel on the river.

But its residents should not be left on the side of that road.