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BroadStreetRandy t1_j5opf9i wrote

As someone who lived off campus at Temple for four years, and still works in North Philly, I get all the increased concern with crime considering the state of the city. At the same time, are we not reaching sort of an impasse when it comes to what the university can do?

More Temple Police and Philadelphia Police present? Last I heard with recruitment numbers and staffing levels neither department is in a position to station more officers in any one location.

More Allied Barton/Mall Cops? They were always very visible when I was there not sure if that's still the case. (I remember buying weed from a few of them at one point, actually lol) Given their recent track record on SEPTA in the last two years I'm not sure their presence actually serves many benefits as to crime reduction in this current climate.

If it's just unacclimated/rattled students and parents unspecifically asking for "something, anything" to happen, they are going to be disappointed because unless the situation in regards to crime improves city-wide I don't see how Temple University can do much of anything to stop this. They know it can hurt enrollment, if they had a cure they would use it.

I know in the past the community (and tbh a large portion of the student body) was always opposed to Temple increasing its presence in almost any way off campus as some sort of gentrification/encroachment scenario so I'm interested to see if that's hindered any proposals or changed in any way perception wise.

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starboardbaby t1_j5ow4wl wrote

As a current student, I think many students (and especially PARENTS, who are often the ones with the money) are usually pro-increasing police presence in the off-campus areas around Temple. Temple has parents and students begging them increase their police presence, like, every single day. But, as another commenter said, I feel like Temple tiptoes around the subject because actually admitting that the neighborhood surrounding it is dangerous is a no-no for PR. It’ll be all “town halls”, “our thoughts are with the victim,” “we promise we’ll do X, X and X” after each incident then nothing really happens.

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BroadStreetRandy t1_j5qkizv wrote

I think the big issue is that I don’t believe the resources exist to put more cops out there, at least for Temple PD. I don’t think they have more resources or officers to staff even if they wanted to. Money only goes so far you need recruits and nobody is going out for jobs with the Temple police.

City police is a whole different story, that gets you into quiet quitting and questionable medical leave… which is a whole other bag of words and not a Temple problem.

I think things will need to change City-Wide before the situation improves.

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zooberwask t1_j5qw2ya wrote

Glassdoor says Temple University Police pay 57k-85k with an average salary of 69k.

>Money only goes so far you need recruits and nobody is going out for jobs with the Temple police.

You think that's money going far, at 69k?

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5otjtr wrote

they could buy up more property around the school and put up a giant fence like girard college

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[deleted] t1_j5ov3y6 wrote

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DoctorSteve t1_j5riu0f wrote

If they offered a large fence, I'm sure they would jump at joining in and fencing it off. Make it a walled city.

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5ovkgc wrote

ah yes, because they immediately enter another jurisdiction it's not like they left town and are in the wild west.

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[deleted] t1_j5ow9zg wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5owy4k wrote

I have issues with both of them. Temple police thought it was better to spend time arresting me for drinking underage rather than preventing (happened the same week) that professor getting the shit beat out of them in their office by some rando off the street.

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[deleted] t1_j5oxlj9 wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5oz6l4 wrote

like you said most of their job is busting kids for underage drinking, while we have serious crimes happening on campus.

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[deleted] t1_j5ozevx wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5ozofq wrote

You say that, but Penn for example has a much larger patrol zone than just the campus. Same thing, their own Police department. Their patrol zone goes from the river to like 43rd.

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[deleted] t1_j5ozzpb wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5p0h4v wrote

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/2018-09/screen_shot_2018-09-24_at_12.48.24_pm_0.png

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[deleted] t1_j5p14sx wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5p1um7 wrote

that is to say, they both have some off campus patrolling right? There's clearly no way they could extend it with their copious funding right?

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[deleted] t1_j5p28z5 wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5p2nw7 wrote

coming up with solutions = moving the goalpost.

Look, here's how penn did it, they used thier massive endowment to build an entirely new sub city around Penn called "university city' and removed all the poor black people. It's not a secret.

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GoldenMonkeyRedux t1_j5pc5uj wrote

You need a history lesson. First of all, the area to the west of Penn is filled with gigantic Victorians built by the richest in the city from the mid 1800's to the 1950's. White flight led to some African American people in the area, but the majority was still white. Then Penn did three important things after the death of a graduate student on the 4300 block of Pine: they drastically increased their police presence bolstered by security, they offered to co-sign employee mortgages at great rates, and they built the Penn Alexander School. For the record, the mortgage program hasn't been offered for almost 15 years.

University City was coined by a bunch of real estate agents/developers in the 1950's, not Penn. University City is technically only up to 40th St, but it's commonly used for the entire area from the river to 50th, Woodland/Baltimore/Kingseessing to Market. No actual resident uses that term. We live in Spruce Hill, Walnut Hill, Squirrel Hill, etc.

Penn didn't kick anyone out. They revitalized the area and made it a desirable place to live. I personally have been here 25 years, own my house, and don't want to live anywhere else in this city. My kid goes to Penn Alexander with children of all races and creeds. White is a plurality, but not a majority. And a very large percentage of the students live near poverty levels.

So no, Penn did not kick out black people.

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zerofox2189 t1_j5qy7g5 wrote

Hey man, even though the other guy didn't like your comment, I thought it was really interesting and informative lol

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GoldenMonkeyRedux t1_j5r0q8n wrote

Actually, there is a big caveat: Penn and Drexel did literally eminent domain the “black bottom” which was a formerly wealthy neighborhood between 32nd and 40th or so. The wealthy moved further west into places like Spruce Hill and the area became a neighborhood for low-income African Americans who were discriminated against elsewhere. The city declared the area blighted and the universities grabbed it.

The 3400 block of Sansom is basically all that exists of the original architecture. Urban renewal was a bitch.

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[deleted] t1_j5p2zap wrote

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5p4z97 wrote

> Where will you be kicking all of the poor people to under your awesome plan? Acting like that isn't already happening at Temple is insanely naieve.

Obviously, to mayfair

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[deleted] t1_j5p5ikv wrote

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j5sqerd wrote

Also University City is not crimeless. There are plenty of incidents, especially a bit further north near Drexel, which also has their own police, but they don’t make the news. Penn has their own big shuttle buses, like Drexel, but also small vans that Penn students and employees can take. I’m sure this cuts down on a significant amount of incidents since they can get a ride home at night. Their campus also has more housing in it so they are within the Penn police domain. A lot of Temple students are living off campus and walking around to get to their homes or to take public transportation.

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martymoran t1_j5ovr2m wrote

its a wall. do you know when that wall was built?

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Aromat_Junkie t1_j5owoq5 wrote

yes, when the nationalist mayoral elect had the streets of girard shouting 'build that wall' and 'send them back to spring garden!'

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NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn t1_j5v51pa wrote

They should build a wall and make Drexel pay for it with all the money they make from scamming kids into a 5th year of Undergrad.

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TheBSQ t1_j5pa5kb wrote

I get what you’re saying the doom-scrolling sense that there’s probably not much anyone can actually do that will change much, unless the city did some crazy shit that that’s just not financially and politically feasible.

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