I agree with Milton & Tom. I think communication has improved to the point where we are much more aware of incidents. I don't think that that necessarily means there are more incidents. I would tell the Review writer to check with the UCD first, and then, IF there is a "crime wave," we can figure out how to address it, but everything I've seen coming out of the UCD's office has shown continual decrease in crime.
Ten years ago or more, the Daily News devoted its entire front page one day to a sensationalist story headlined "University City: Crime Moves In." It was no more than a series of anecdotes told by a writer who had looked at houses in our neighborhood, but had not quite been able to afford to buy here. I think she was a little bitter. Most people in the neighborhood were very, very angry to see her blow up a few incidents into such a big, negative and exaggerated story. Then there was the Sunday when a former Penn police chief was quoted in a big story in the Inquirer saying that crime got worse block by block, the farther you went from the campus. Not true, as we all know! But the READERS didn't know it, and it did a lot of damage.
Let's not repeat these headlines if it isn't really true!
does anyone here read the dp? they regularly publish a front page story about crimes/safety issues (on campus, in ucity) -- almost every single day. the story is almost always placed on the lower right corner, sometimes on the upper right. I've come to think of it as the 'scary corner,' and I'm always wondering what the point of it is, what kind of image of 'crime/hazard' it's attempting to paint, especially when we hear from so many other corners that the amount of crime is decreasing, that it's safer.
not trying to contradict anyone here, just pointing out that there's "leading with facts" (statistics) and there's "leading with facts" (stories), depending on who is doing the leading and why (and when, and to whom)...
back in the late 90s (november 1997) the penn alumni magazine (gazette) featured our neighborhoods on its cover as part of a cartoon game board, with the caption 'some assembly required.' the cover story inside the magazine depicted our neighborhoods in black and white photos, dark, gritty, ominous shots of peeling walls and looming shadows on cloudy days, that sort of thing. the overall effect was one of depressed dilapidation and decay. not sure if their editor was bitter or what, but I don't recall many if any neighbors' voices questioning this negative depiction. ironically enough, the story appeared right before penn stepped in to 'transform' the neighborhoods. then, magically, a few months later, colorful sunny photos of our neighborhoods appeared on the cover of the campus phone directory -- right about the time when penn introduced a new guaranteed mortgage program aimed at penn faculty and staff.
gazette article: http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/1197/index.html
mortgage program: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/mortgage-plan-article.html
98-99 campus phone book: http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v45/n10/phonebook98-99.html
......... laserbeam� [aka ray]
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