COLUMN: Let's turn Penn into an urban mall

From Sarah Giulian's, "From Under My Rock," Fall '97 From Sarah Giulian's, "From Under My Rock," Fall '97 Ah, our Penn community. In an ideal world the campus would be crime and vagrant free; our streets, clean as a whistle; students would access and pay for everything with one card and food trucks wouldn't clutter our blocks. Then we would all be smiling, or so the administration thinks. We would never, ever be inconvenienced by this whole city thing. We would be free. This is what's happening people and it's time to grow the hell up and get real. We live in a city, not a mall, and this is the world, not utopia. Take crime, for instance -- the hottest topic for students to bitch about, apathetically whining, "But I just don't feel safe." Yeah, crime is tough and tragic. But enough of the boo-hoos. Crime is real and it's not Penn's responsibility to protect its dear babies from the shark's teeth. We are in a city; crime exists. Be smart -- you can't always avoid violent acts of crime, but you can often minimize their effects. Split your money. Carry two wallets. Don't walk alone late at night. You all know the drill. Some of us will be mugged -- or shot -- but most of us won't. You chose to go to school in a city and life is full of compromises. Excitement involves risk. Cities involve crime. We need to be prepared and accept it as part of our city experience, not cry to the administration to clean up a mess they have absolutely no control over. Then there's the whole food truck thing. I personally regard every truck as an angel -- helpful, cheap and ultra-convenient. I wouldn't be able to support my caffeine addiction without them. Now they want to put them all in a lot, a "food truck court," to clean up our streets. Ludicrous. Our city is littered with tiny silver food trucks crowded with bustling, smiling people. Now big ole Papa Penn says "No more, they're ugly." Who cares? This is a city. I learned last week the University is considering offering dining services on weekends. Heaven forbid we'd have to cook for ourselves. Let's pay over $10 a meal to have someone do it for us. Let's get a Quaker Card so we can do all our grocery shopping at Wawa. We never have to flinch at their sky-high prices because we never see the bill. Let's get more places like Chats and the commissaries so we never have to set foot off campus and never have to touch our wallets. Let's get a massive bookstore chain to take over our school and satisfy our every shopping need. Let's turn Penn into a mall. We all know Houston Hall doesn't cut it. Thank God for the impending Perelman Quad. I felt it was time someone draws your attention to these subtle changes. Penn is not Philadelphia. Penn doesn't own Philadelphia. And Penn shouldn't try to become our entire Philadelphia. Last semester I had to buy a bulk pack downtown. It was $40 cheaper than The Book Store or Campus Copy Center. Brilliant. I didn't mind spending the three bucks on a round trip commute one bit. Things cost me when Penn has to provide them. College is our chance to make a transition from high school into the real world. Yet every year we spend here, Penn is becoming our babysitter. We're regressing into being helpless kids as opposed to taking steps towards independence. When I studied in London, I commuted to school every day, purchased all my books in different bookstores across the city and bought my food at my local grocery store. Campus was a place for classes and a cup of coffee, but the city was our home. Living like this allows for the unexpected. You have to buy these goods, now go find them -- that's life. Working problems out allows for an opportunity to learn. Through it all we then mature and are better prepared to live in the real world. Instead of creating a campus that is the city, we have a campus in a city. Let's grow up and start acting like it.