Landlord group to focus on trash, lighting

Hoping to make University City cleaner, brighter and safer, a newly-formed committee of area landlords this week identified improving trash collection, lighting and locks throughout their properties as their top initial priorities. The week-old group -- composed of 11 landlords and one Penn representative -- held its first official meeting at the University's Office of Off-Campus Living Tuesday and plans on holding weekly meetings on that day. Led by Dan Bernstein, property manager of Campus Apartments, and Dan DeRitis, owner of Apartments at Penn, the group -- which was created during a meeting the University held for area landlords last week -- split into three subcommittees at the 1 1/2-hour meeting. Each sub-committee will work on one of the group's main objectives. "We all want a clean, safe place to live no matter where we are," said Mark Sherman, owner of Sherman Properties and head of the subcommittee that will work on a "zero trash" policy. The subcommittees -- each made up of two to three landlords -- are responsible for bringing a list of recommended improvements to a future meeting of the yet-to-be-named committee. Implementing the new requirements they hope to create may be difficult for the group, however, since it has no power to enforce its regulations and no funding. Bernstein is heading the subcommittee which hopes to improve visibility in University City by improving outside lighting and clearing shrubs, said Esaul Sanchez, Penn's director of neighborhood initiatives and the only non-landlord member of the committee. Bernstein, who spent several hours yesterday researching lighting in the area, took on the task because of his previous work with the UC Brite program. UC Brite was a 1 1/2-year initiative led by Penn to install residential lighting throughout University City that ended last month. John McGarry of Trammell Crow Co.-operated University City Associates, Penn's for-profit real estate arm, will lead the subcommittee focusing on enforcing better-quality locks, doors and windows on all rental properties. The zero-trash policy group, led by Sherman, hopes to investigate and monitor trash collection in University City. Sherman said his group was to begin yesterday by noting who is putting their garbage out for trash collection on the appropriate day. "These seem like small suggestions, but if we implement them, we can make a big difference," Sanchez said. Sanchez predicted that most landlords in the area would comply and that the remaining landlords would follow regulations also after "some friendly convincing." Some of the regulations that the committee hopes to put into effect are already required by Philadelphia's Department of Licensing and Inspections. "We're going beyond those [city standards]," said Sanchez. "We don't want to stop at what the city requires. We want to get to a point where in our area, the standards are higher."