Services district starts cleanup, town watch

About 60 yellow-and-black clad workers hit the streets of University City this summer in an effort to make the neighborhood cleaner and safer. Representatives of local universities, businesses, community organizations and government agencies joined together to create a long-awaited special services district in West Philadelphia, expanding efforts to clean up University City. The $4.5 million project is modeled on the 7-year-old Center City District, which is credited with improving the street paving, lighting and sidewalk cleaning in the area, as well as reducing crime downtown by hiring professional town-watchers to be visibly present on the streets. University City District employees started work Aug. 15, targeting a 120-block area west of the Schuylkill River, extending from 30th to 48th streets and from Spring Garden Street to Woodland Avenue. UCD officials say they are working to remove graffiti, clean sidewalks and lots, increase security, plant trees and hang banners in order to make the area "a destination to work and to play," UCD Chairperson and University Executive Vice President John Fry said in a June statement. "University City will be to Center City what Cambridge is to Boston," Fry added, mentioning that he began planning the UCD over six months ago in order to improve the quality of life in University City, an area which was the sight of the October murder of University researcher Vladimir Sled and the September shooting of then-College junior Patrick Leroy. Organizations affiliated with the UCD -- including Penn, Drexel, the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania,the West Philadelphia Partnership and the United States Postal Service -- have already raised most of the necessary funds through voluntary contributions. The allotted funds are divided into four categories, ranging from cleaning public areas and providing security specialists to increasing lighting and hiring professionals to oversee UCD projects. Since the plans got off the ground, the workers have been visibly busy throughout the area. All of them are West Philadelphia residents who had been on welfare until recently. The University's role in the UCD will be one of both financial and community involvement. University President Judith Rodin said in June that she hopes the University will be "a good neighbor with the community" as it moves forward with its future plans for renovation and academic pursuit. Other participants in the UCD include Amtrak, the Children's Seashore House, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, the University City Community Council, the University City Science Center, and the VA Medical Center.

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