Stephen Morse | Keeping an eye on the west

As the stores on the 3900 block are relocated in anticipation of the new residential and retail space the University plans to build there, I set out to investigate whether establishments like University Pinball, a campus mainstay for 30 years, would also be affected by recent neighborhood redevelopment.

Admittedly, until last week, I'd never set foot into University Pinball. When I entered the joint on Friday night shortly after 6 p.m., I found a mix of kids and adults sharing their passions for video games and pool.

Mook, an employee of University Pinball who has worked their for "years" said, "Everyone comes down here for fun, because besides movie theatres, there's not much else to do at night." People come to University Pinball "all the way from Northeast Philadelphia," Mook added, because there are so few nightlife options for young people.

And fewer nighttime options means adolescents are subject to dangerous nighttime streets.

Marcquis, a sixteen-year-old who lives up on 52nd Street, said that he comes down to University Pinball because it gives him "something to do" at night. He and his friends are afraid to be on the streets, and University Pinball is the closest place for them to "escape." In the Penn Bubble, it's easy to forget that there's a dangerous world just a mile or two from campus.

But, although plastic, University Pinball is full of guns - half of the games involve shooting. I asked Marcquis how he thinks that playing these games influences his friends. Sadly, he feels that the games encourage violence, and that the games encourage his friends to go out and buy real guns.

This creates a huge paradox for me. Having kids spend their time and money playing video games is surely better than seeing them on the streets. But this should not be the best or only alternative.

Marcquis and his buddies play basketball at the Police Athletic League near their homes, but this program doesn't extend into the night.

Penn-sponsored programs like University City High School Community School and Fitness Nights enable Penn students to volunteer during weeknights to help the community. Some of my friends have generously spent their time teaching local students to cook, perform magic tricks and play football.

Emma Hall, a Junior in the College currently studying abroad who headed up the program last semester, said in an e-mail, "In the spring, we often had 80-100 people coming to take classes like cooking, break dancing, Web site design, hip hop dance, piano and violin lessons, double dutch, arts and crafts."

However, weeknight and daytime programs, while important, aren't protecting young people at the most vulnerable times.

There are ways of fixing this. Right now most, if not all, Penn students would rarely consider giving up a Friday or Saturday night to volunteer to help the community. But it shouldn't be that hard for us, considering we don't go out until some time after 11 p.m. anyway. I'd be more than willing to get my butt kicked in basketball or ping pong by high school kids before I get my butt kicked in flip cup and beer pong by my friends later on, if that means I'm making a difference.

While certainly not impossible, I understand that creating a nighttime weekend program is ambitious and that there would be many obstacles to overcome before it could be implemented.

"It would probably be nice to expand to more nights," Hall said. "However, that is far from easy because of lack of funding and we need to cooperate with UCHS to use their facilities, pay for security, etc."

Hall also worries that it would be difficult to open the school on weekends.

The real problem is that inner-city Philadelphians have few choices, and the Mayor's office and City Council seem to have a long way to go before finding a solution.

Stewart Graham, a spokesman for Philadelphia councilman Frank Rizzo, acknowledged that "resources are limited." Graham said that the city's current priority is keeping children from becoming "at risk" in the first place, which means funds are allocated for education before more direct crime prevention programs.

As Penn moves east, it cannot forget about the west. Community outreach programs must remain a priority, so that plastic guns aren't the only alternatives to handguns.

Stephen Morse is a College senior from Oceanside, N.Y. His e-mail address is morse@dailypennsylvanian.com

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