GUEST COLUMN: OPINION: "Building Community Ties", Not Quite There

What exactly does "the community" mean? Is it the whole City? All of West Philadelphia? Those four or five separate neighborhoods that sometimes go under the name University City? Or just the single closest-in neighborhood, Spruce Hill? It seems to me, it's all of these, but in different senses. Penn desperately needs a comprehensive, but differentiated strategy that offers the various "communities" the kinds of help that it is capable of. This help must be appropriate -- and most importantly -- in Penn's interests to offer. West Philadelphia boasts many neighborhoods that are convenient, affordable and physically beautiful -- but, also, unquestionably threatened. To those of us who choose to live here, it seems obvious that the presence of sound, stable residential areas surrounding the University is vital to its survival as an institution where students will want to study, and faculty will want to teach and do research. But it's been difficult to get that point across. In part, this is due to the ever-increasing number of students and administrators who don't hail from cities, and don't understand what makes them tick. In part, it's due to the deplorable condition of the blocks immediately surrounding campus, a squalor which squelches the curiosity of those who might otherwise explore further afield, encourages the worst in prejudice and fear, and obscures the beauty and the sense of community that attracts so many people of diverse social, racial and economic backgrounds to voluntary residence just a few blocks further west. As a resident of one of the close-in blocks just off 40th St., I am convinced that it is within the University's enormous institutional power to adjust its off-campus housing policies and its business operations in a way that will help my neighborhood address some of its problems. Believe me: There is no shortage of specific ideas for the University consider. Moreover, it would make sense for the University and community to act together in demanding better service from the City. Since PILOT's (payment in lieu of taxes) fees are coming Penn's way in any case, and no additional fiscal obligations are likely no matter what Penn's negotiating stance, why shouldn't Penn demand those very improvements which would help stabilize our (and its) neighborhood? Together, as partners, we could achieve better City policing, street sanitation at least as good as Center City's, new investment in our public schools to help us retain families with young children and stronger support for the much-needed redevelopment of our housing stock and retail corridors. All these things would help us stabilize our area, and in turn help Penn and its students in many, many ways. Some preliminary efforts at cooperation are already under way, but they're new and of small scale. Every indication to date suggests that Vice President Carol Scheman, my co-columnist today, understands the importance of University/community linkages and is prepared to urge them upon University President Judith Rodin as the institutional priority they ought to be. The DP ought to be watching this process with interest. It's important to acknowledge that the various "communities" to whose fate Penn's is inextricably tied won't always agree with Penn. That's OK, even if the debate is acrimonious at times. What's intolerable is for the University to have no community strategy at all, except in the sense of property acquisition. It's been that way for too long, and it's now do-or-die time for Penn and its surrounding communities. David Hochman is a community resident and faculty spouse. He is an officer of Spruce Hill Community Association, but this column does not represent an official position of the Association.