Across the city, civic groups are taking proactive steps toward diminishing crime and blight in their neighborhoods.

In Passyunk Square, residents are taking the blight fight into their own hands. Across town, when the folks at University City District learned through a comprehensive safety study that the area around the 46th Street El station (we wrote about an upcoming mural project here last week) was a hotspot for nighttime crime, they resolved to address the situation by investing $100K to light up the four blocks south of the station on both Farragut and 46th Streets.

Looking north, up 46th Street, it's pretty dark

Lighting map of the area

The report, born out of a relationship with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a New York-based organization that works on connecting local groups with resources, also indicated that individuals committing crimes in the area often hid behind a large retaining wall on Market Street. So UCD cut the height of the wall in half. The crime analysis was done in order to assess areas in University City that could benefit from intervention.

Fifteen new pedestrian lights will be installed as a result of this collaboration, which also includes PECO and other community development organizations. Plus, UCD officers have been redeployed to make a better impact on reducing crime, and plans are underway for a new program to improve lighting on adjacent commercial and residential buildings.

With this project and others, like Project Rehab, UCD is acting as a very positive force in the neighborhood, improving safety as well as quality of life.

–Lou Mancinelli