COLUMN: Cleaning Up Crime

From Abby Beshkin's "All Set," Fall '95 From Abby Beshkin's "All Set," Fall '95When my housemates and I moved in last month, the first thing we voted on unanimously was installing an alarm. I went running last weekend. As I ventured further west and neared 50th Street, the neighborhood began to seem more run-down. Admittedly, I doubled back and jogged the other way. A couple weeks ago the first PFSNI II -- Penn Friends and Students for Neighborhood Involvement -- meeting was held at our house. The name is a spin-off of the original PFSNI, Penn Faculty and Staff for Neighborhood Issues, which for some reason did not want to accept student members. But essentially both organizations serve the same purpose -- to create a sense of neighborhood and community in a sprawling area of the city that is wonderfully complex, that is at the same time amazingly rich and deeply troubled. And while there are many severe problems to be dealt with in West Philadelphia, the purpose of the PFSNI II meeting was to place those on the back burner. The meeting was called to deal instead with the details, the small daily injustices West Philadelphia suffers and how they can be rectified. When I first read it, PFSNI II's mission statement seemed pretty basic. It sought to make West Philadelphia "more vibrant" by planting flowers along Spruce Street. It made improper trash disposal seem like a major disaster. I wondered why a meeting was being called to talk about the best way to leave out recycling so it doesn't scatter across the sidewalk. But then someone at the meeting brought up crime. Nearly half of the 10 or so participants were home owners who rent their apartments to students. Two of them talked briefly about how, in the 20-some years since they've owned their houses, they've watched West Philly crime statistics skyrocket. Crime was an easy hook. The more that people talked about crime, the more people latched onto the topic. It's something nearly every Penn affiliate has in common -- fear of crime, and the desire to see it erased from the streets. Everyone is against crime, except for the few who do it and ruin it for everyone else. But there are enough discussions about crime on this campus. It has long since been recognized as a major issue. It is dwelled on at University Council meetings, and in the newspaper. It is focused on by countless University committees, by the president, by the provost and the vice provost and the associate vice provost and assistant to the associate vice provost. People often think that making a difference in the community means fostering major change and tackling the larger issues. But it's often the smaller ones that matter. In the quest to solve West Philadelphia's greater problems, the details often fall by the wayside. In the rush to rid the area of crime, the more humble actions of planting flowers or cleaning up a block are seen as being besides the point. In the understandable panic over crime, it is easy to forget how hard community members have worked to set up town watches. It's easy to overlook the neighborhood's more eccentric quirks, like the fact that town watch members are trying to liven up the job by doing their shifts on rollerblades. In fact, according to a Washington Post article from this past summer, many city planners and law officials agree that the more attractive an area is, the less susceptible it is to crime. According to the article, one neighborhood in New Jersey hired someone to fine people for such seemingly small infractions as failing to mow their lawns or allowing the paint on their houses to crumble. The crime rate in this area is much lower than in the next town over. Two years ago, New York's newly hired police commissioner began cracking down on such relatively trivial offenses as graffiti and aggressive panhandling. In the article, the police commissioner links the heightened enforcement with a 37 percent drop in the city's murder rate. It is easy to forget how vibrant a community this area is, and how hard the people who want to make it better work to reach their goals. I have to remind myself to read The West Philadelphia Weekly Press, and when I do I'm always surprised. It's barely 20 pages long, but it's one of the best community newspapers going. Two weeks ago, it ran an open letter calling for attendance of the Spruce Hill community meeting. The letter stressed that fleeing the city for the suburbs is like admitting defeat. West Philadelphia residents should be focusing on making the city itself a more livable place. This past Spruce Hill community meeting, according to The Weekly Press was standing room only. Introductory programs like the successful Into the Streets are useful as glimpses into what should be an ongoing commitment to the appearance of a neighborhood. Into the Streets -- a University-wide community cleanup day -- is well attended for the one day a year that it runs. But relatively few students have any vested interest in the neighborhood because few of us plan to remain in it much past graduation. So that's why the PFSNI II members did not want to talk about crime. Because often it's just as important to channel energy into to making the community a nicer place to live. It sounds simple. But it may just help the crime problem on its own.