<p>Was Penn always like this... or is this something new? I heard from my friend who worked there over the summer that he was robbed on campus by bat wielding 12 year olds and his mentor was beat up on the way to work. Apparently, it's not a far stretch of the imagination...</p>
<p>It was always like this... Penn has been in the middle of the ghetto for the last 50 years. There are periodic increases and decreases in crime rates for reasons nobody quite understands. Right now we happen to be going thru an increase in the national crime rate and Phila. mirrors this trend but there was never a time when the campus was totally crime free. </p>
<p>Some of what is going on is pure stupidity - in today's DP they report on burglaries in Harnwell over break but apparently the people who were robbed left their doors unlocked. You have to take at least a LITTLE responsibility for your own safety.</p>
<p>^^ Agreed (10chars)</p>
<p>Columbia has a much better reputation for campus security because:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>New York's mayor is not an incompetent, corrupt race-baiter and NYC as a whole is doing marvelously with crime. John F Street deserves to be in prison.</p></li>
<li><p>Columbia's campus is MUCH easier to manage for security than Penn, because
-a. it's 36 acres. Penn's campus is 269 acres. You do the math.
-b. Columbia is a gated fortress. Access points are limited and monitored in a way that Penn, with its much more ill-defined and porous boundaries, could never hope to do.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Changes underway to address these problems:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Michael Nutter, mayor-elect of Philadelphia. Competent and Penn grad. With any luck he will be the black Rudy and get tough on crime to the point of being borderline unconstitutional (fine by me)</p></li>
<li><p>the university is building additional housing closer to campus--the Hub, Radian, and a planned new dorm on Hill Field. This will mean more students are closer to campus, and that some of the rental properties currently housing students could be converted to homes for long-term residents, which will build the community and lower crime.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So basically it goes back down to what Percy said. These things have gone up, and the will go down as part of the lovely circle of life.</p>