If UPENN can do it...

This was an article about the University of Pennsylvania investing in the community around them. The Washington Post January 9th article "Urban Colleges Learn to be Good Neighbors," talks about how UPenn lived in an area of industrial wasteland, filth, and soaring crime ten years ago. Their neighborhood McDonald's was nicknamed McDeath. Students were virtual prisoners on campus.

The University began to worry that enrollment was threatened as one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious schools was fast developing a reputation as unsafe. They could choose to build a moat around the campus or they could reach out and save the community. They saved it.

Over the better part of a decade, the University invested about a billion dollars in security, retail, schools, and the local housing market. It also made sure the community and minority companies got a piece of the success (known as "economic inclusion"). The result is making UPenn one of the hottest schools in the country, sitting in a neighborhood where crime has been reduced by 49 percent in the past decade, and where students swarm the streets shopping at upscale stores. This is a new national trend where Penn and other universities are aggressively trying to bridge "town-gown" tensions by investing heavily in adjacent troubled neighborhoods and making a connection with local civic life. Since 1996, over 100 schools have visited the Penn campus and surrounding area (hmm, I wonder if Case made a visit...).

Other schools have followed suit. Yale University has developed retail and office space nearby, offered financial incentives to employees to buy homes in the neighborhood, and tutoring programs for local schools. Trinity College spent more than $100 million to turn a run-down area in Hartford, Conn into a 16-acre Learning Corridor with four local schools. Temple University is involved with running local schools and is working with developers to bring in restaurants and retail. Clark University in Worceester, Mass is opening a middle school, renovated housing, and funding to refurbish storefronts. Howard University agree to rehabilitate 28 run-down houses that the school owned for 30 years.

But it is amazing to what UPenn has done. It moved its bookstore off-campus to encourage foot traffic and brought in Urban Outfitters and the Gap. They got 1,000 University employees to purchase nearby homes through extra financial incentives. The biggest highlight of their plan was to build a school, the Penn Alexander School for K-8 students. Quite a success story.

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Looking back to the first year at Case and today, has the neigborhood surrounding the University improved greatly? Current students will definitely say a lot has changed with the new NRV residences and the eventual tear down of Baker Hall. The recent grads will talk about Case buying out the former Mount Sinai campus and the Silver Spartan. Going back another few years, students witnessed the demolition of Pardee Hall and the building of Veale Recreational Center. A bit before that, we saw the dedication of the Peter B. Lewis Management building. Keeping on going, the Agnar Pytte Center was built for a great outgoing President. Finally, the MSASS building, Dively Center, the razing of Freiberger Library and the opening of the Kelvin Smith Library and the Smith Biomedical Research Building. All of this happened on campus.

Then, looking back again off-campus wise, we were still afraid of going beyond E. 118th Street, students still wanted to get off at University Circle Rapid station and take the Greenie northside, and the McDonald's on Euclid was considered a risk on certain nights. If you live in the NRV buildings and want to take a jog outside, would you do it on the track or around the Village? We still call the Taco Bell on Euclid (if it's still there), "Ghetto Bell" because of the thick bulletproof glass at the drive-thru window. If you travel from Case to the Cleveland Clinic, it's like seeing a island of modern buildings. The streets adjacent give the opposite comparison. Shopping is still very limited with only the shuttle to take you to Coventry, or the car to get to Beachwood and the Legacy Village, Severance Center, or downtown to Tower City. It is granted that Northsiders can barely reach Southside to get to Giant Eagle, Aladdin's, or Jillian's.

I really hate to criticize, but look at this...if you ask grads from last year, 5 or 10 years ago, the compliants are still the same. I know people will tell me things are improving...yes, on the campus, but we still have that feeling of uneasiness walking 2-3 blocks beyond the campus boundary.

Please, prove me wrong.