COLUMN: "Risking our lives?

From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96 From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96To bring students and faculty back to WestFrom Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96To bring students and faculty back to WestPhiladelphia, administrators need to crackFrom Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96To bring students and faculty back to WestPhiladelphia, administrators need to crackdown on crime and neighborhood neglect. From Adam Mark's, "Mark My Words," Fall '96To bring students and faculty back to WestPhiladelphia, administrators need to crackdown on crime and neighborhood neglect. Penn students are fleeing West Philadelphia as if our lives depend on it. Well, they do. Since September 6, at least 16 people have been victims of armed robberies near campus. One student was held up at gunpoint just a few doors from Smokey Joe's, less than a block away from the University Police station in Superblock. Life threatening? You do the math. This exodus from West Philly shouldn't surprise administrators. They've watched it happen for seven years. They've watched students grow increasingly disgusted with the conditions of the neighborhood surrounding campus -- and they haven't done much about it. Crime around campus shows no signs of waning. And it won't until the University better addresses the myriad problems that promote a criminal atmosphere here: excessive trash and graffiti, aggressive panhandling, poorly lit streets, vendors peddling illegal goods and area teens breaking the city's curfew. Administrators are working or say they are working on some of these things, but I wonder if it's too little, too late. If the area doesn't soon show signs of improvement and students continue migrating eastward, Penn will all but lose its own neighborhood. Certainly the University should work from the inside out; Locust Walk comes before Locust Street. But we don't exist in a bubble. We depend on the surrounding area and it depends on us. But in spite of this, Penn hasn't taken necessary steps to secure this area. The University has sponsored many initiatives, but most have been successful only in the public relations arena. They have had little impact on the quality of life. For example, despite cooperation between the University and local landlords to fix the trash problem west of campus, it hasn't significantly abated. Despite the University's recent campaign encouraging us not to give change to panhandlers, they still approach me everyday as I walk to class. And despite promises to improve lighting off campus, nothing's been done. Penn hasn't lifted a finger against the hordes of street vendors who sell illegal goods all around campus, particularly along 40th Street. Those who hawk fake Gucci jackets and pirated movies are criminals and should be booted. Penn Police don't enforce Philadelphia's teen curfew, allowing throngs of area youth to loiter unsupervised around campus after dark and make trouble. Graffiti on University-owned properties is often not cleaned for weeks or months. These conditions invite criminals to Penn and incite criminal behavior. That we go easy on trash and graffiti and panhandling sends the message to criminals that we don't care about our community. Even without the criminal element, a dark and dirty community makes students feel unsafe. It keeps them inside and forces them to ride Escort rather than walk. A special services district, like the highly successful Center City District, could address many of these concerns. Its creation would bring together area colleges, organizations and businesses to provide additional services such as trash and graffiti removal, street paving and safety patrols. The administration has expressed interest in forming a special services district, which would be a step in the right direction. But in the meantime, what should Penn do to keep more students from fleeing and attract displaced students back to West Philadelphia? First, Penn can compete with and beat Center City at its own game. City Council is currently considering legislation to crack down on aggressive panhandling and loitering in Center City. When this legislation passes, the downtown homeless and panhandling population will relocate to Penn, just as vendors did when Center City tightened vending regulations a few years ago. There's nothing stopping Penn from pushing similar legislation to apply to our neighborhood. Second, Penn can actively encourage the city to fine landlords and students who violate trash ordinances, just as it invited the LCE to cite underage drinkers. If the sanitation police were as vigilant here as the parking authority, the area would clean itself up fast. Moreover, retail around campus should serve as a lively and welcoming bridge between Penn and the neighborhood, especially along 40th Street. Burger King and FWOT just aren't cutting it. If Penn wants to win students and faculty back to West Philly, it needs to attract more and better retail to the west end of campus, where off-campus housing is concentrated. Bucks County and Cool Peppers were a good start. Still, we need more than java and tacos to liven the area and keep us near campus. Construction of the Barnes and Noble bookstore at 36th and Walnut streets should encourage other businesses to fill in now-vacant storefronts along Walnut Street and beyond. To complement these new stores, the University should plant trees, hang school banners, erect large campus maps for visitors and install benches, to give the area the feel of a college town, not that of a decaying urban center. Until these ideas become reality, however, life in West Philadelphia will still pose challenges. For those of us who actually live at 41st and Walnut, 39th and Pine or 42nd and Spruce, every day is an adventure. Most administrators can't possibly understand as we do the immediacy of the situation. They don't live in it. They don't trudge through it every night. If any administrator with the word community in his title actually lived anywhere near West Philadelphia, things would improve infinitely faster. Often at the University, only crisis can provoke action. Two years ago, when graduate student Al-Moez Alimohamed was gunned down at 48th and Pine streets, Judith Rodin visited the murder scene and stumped for the television cameras. She felt our pain. She drafted a "master plan" for safety and quickly implemented it. She replaced her lackluster police commissioner with a seasoned Philly cop and promised many more improvement initiatives. The community became priority one on the administration's agenda. I hope it still is.