News Analysis: Arcade's crime ties doubted

Will closing University Pinball really help prevent crime at 40th and Spruce? It's practically on campus. It boasts a selection of some of the latest high-tech games. And it's one of the few establishments around campus that stays open late. But most of the game players who frequent University Pinball at 4008 Spruce Street aren't Penn students. Instead, in the words of a recent University lawsuit seeking to shut the arcade down at night, its customers are "involved in or appear likely to become involved in disorderly and/or criminal activity." Indeed, the fact that most of those customers are African Americans from local neighborhoods instead of students raises questions about exactly what the University is trying to accomplish in its legal battles with the arcade. School administrators insist the lawsuits are part of a concerted attempt to reduce crime. But the Schoepe family -- which owns the establishment, as well as the adjacent University Laundry -- wonders whether Penn is just trying to bolster its crime-fighting image. "Several recent high-profile crimes in the area put pressure on the University and its campus police to make it appear that they were doing something to combat crime," stated a document filed by Schoepe attorneys in the civil suit. "The University told plaintiffs that they did not like the 'type of people' who patronized plaintiffs' arcade and laundromat." Many game room patrons said the University and city are wasting quarters in their efforts to close the arcade, because shutting it down would do little or nothing to reduce crime in the area around 40th and Spruce streets. "If they closed it down, you would see that I'm not lying [that the game room does not attract crime]," said West Philadelphia resident Ronnie Rogers, 43, who added that he would rather see local teenagers playing video games than dealing drugs and getting into trouble. The dispute between the Penn officials and the owners of University Pinball and University Laundry has spilled into federal court, with the owners charging that Penn and the city illegally shut down the businesses April 18. The University is countersuing, claiming that the establishments attract criminals and threaten public safety, particularly after nightfall. The businesses were open 24 hours a day until May, when attorneys for the Schoepe family agreed with University and Philadelphia attorneys to close the arcade and coin-operated laundry between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. daily. The Schoepes are also suing the University and its chief spokesperson, Ken Wildes, in Philadelphia court for libel and slander over comments Wildes made in the May 8 issue of the weekly University City Review. Customers at University Pinball yesterday afternoon, most of whom were African American, said they felt safe in the arcade. "People only come here to play games," said local resident Kevin Harris, 20. "They don't come here to start trouble or nothing." If the game room closed, "a lot of people would be mad," Harris said. But closing the arcade, at least at night, is just what University officials want. Its customers urinate in the streets, smoke marijuana, steal cars, deal drugs and beat up Penn students, the University claims. Glenn Bryan, director of the University's Office of Community Relations, said the only issue in the game room fight is reducing crime -- and that keeping local residents away from campus has nothing to do with it. "I don't know where that came from," Bryan said. "If the insinuation is that? we don't want people from the community on our campus, that's absolutely wrong." History Department Chairperson Lynn Lees, a longtime West Philadelphia resident, said the game room's late hours and general lack of student customers pose some problems for the area, but stressed that "the difficulty is that almost nothing is open late at night except the game room."

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