U. moves to improve off-campus lighting

Officials, police tour areaOfficials, police tour areainspecting quality of lights After years of student complaints about a lack of proper off-campus lighting, the University has begun to make short-term improvements in the situation, Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman said. Joined by representatives of Philadelphia Police and the Philadelphia Electric Company, Scheman and Vice President for Facilities Management Art Gravina toured the area from 40th to 45th streets between Walnut and Osage streets Monday night, looking for lighting problems. This effort comes nearly a year after representatives of the Panhellenic Council took a similar tour with Public Safety Managing Director Thomas Seamon, Chief of University Police Operations Maureen Rush and Public Safety Director of Security Chris Algard. During the last academic year, then-Panhel President Lissette Calderon, a 1996 graduate, complained about the lack of tangible improvement in off-campus lighting. Now, sorority sisters who live just off campus claim that the issue has not been resolved. "I have to live in [my sorority] house? and I am quite wary of the safety situation on Walnut, especially this block of Walnut," said Wharton senior Candice Wang, president of Kappa Alpha Theta, which is located at 41st and Walnut streets. "Since more Greek houses are moving here, like Pi Phi did, the University should consider this area more of a priority," Wang added. Panhel President and College senior Jessica Schreck echoed Wang's concern about the 40th and 41st blocks of Walnut Street, noting that Algard told Panhel the blocks suffered from poor lighting placement. But yesterday, Scheman said the University is going to pursue several short-term solutions for particularly problematic areas. For example, since the cobra-style overhead lighting poles that the neighborhood uses are made of wood, they can be made shorter to avoid obstructions, or an extra light could be affixed to each pole. In addition, Scheman has asked Center for Community Partnerships Director Ira Harkavy to select two sections of University City with dense student populations for more thorough evaluations by PECO, which will make suggestions for improvements. Scheman said local landlords have expressed a desire to improve lighting if it will increase safety. She added that she plans to show PECO's assessment to these landlords. "I want to go to the landlords and establish full expectation that they enroll in the program," Scheman said. Scheman explained that while the representatives found many well-lit blocks during their tour, they did discover examples of inadequate lighting or trees which obscured lighting. "I discovered that what you have in West Philadelphia is lights that are meant to light the street and not the sidewalk," Scheman said. And often over-lighting around certain buildings caused problems, since the excess light cast shadows on adjacent properties that do not feature lighting of comparable strength. Scheman has asked PECO specifically to look at Walnut Street, which she said is plagued by the combination of over-lighting in some areas and extremely poor lighting in others. She also mentioned that students tend to feel particularly unsafe on Walnut because cars drive quickly and rarely have to stop for lights. According to Scheman, University President Judith Rodin recently asked Gov. Tom Ridge to change the timing of the traffic lights on Walnut Street to force cars to stop more frequently. Scheman also said she found that porch lights added considerably to the overall sidewalk lighting. She recommended landlords put outside lighting on a timer so that the lights will go on even if students are not home, adding that many families in the area have begun to use motion detector lights as well. Scheman added that she was unable to determine which landlords were guilty of lighting violations, although she plans to report one landlord to the Licenses and Inspection Department in the near future. Scheman explained that the lighting problems have been especially difficult to resolve because tree-trimming responsibilities have been shifted to a different city agency over the past few years and, beyond that, any action to trim trees and improve lighting is costly and time consuming for the city. In the past, trees have been trimmed, she added, but they grow back in as little as one year. Scheman noted that if landlords were to pay for lighting improvements, rents could rise. "It is a questions of how much more rent a student is willing to pay for better living," she explained. Schreck said she would welcome any action if it improves the quality and placement of lighting rather than merely increasing the amount of lights near campus.