UR Southwest Rochester - Who is more dangerous to who?

With the recent robbery at the pedestrian bridge and the media attention around it, we are left with the impression that Southwest Rochester is a threat to U of R students. Which raises the question of who is actually more dangerous - us or them. In all my years in the neighborhood I can not recall, and hopefully never will, a death related to a city resident murdering a U of R student or staff member. However, in the recent past there has unfortunately been one death on the campus, but this involved self defense between two U of R students. For those with short memories there has also been one 21 year old African American student killed by a U of R professor. Click this link to read of his sentencing. UR of professor sentenced in death of 21 year old African American .... Although it states he was a former U of R associate professor, he was a professor when this event happened, and then was subsequently fired by the U or R following the event. Given the legitimate uproar over Trayvon Martin, here is a case were a 21 year old is killed and the killer only gets one year in prison. My assumption is that if any of the those 4 young men who regrettably mugged the U of R student are caught, and hopefully they will be caught, they may well get more than one year in prison.

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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on March 27, 2012 at 4:19am

Hang in there Judi. I would not bail-out just yet. If nothing else the spread of student housing into the PLEX and 19th Ward area will put pressure on the powers that be to address some of the crime in the area. Hopefully the use of social media will help neighborhoods be better organized to resist the detrimental effects of the changes that are coming.

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on March 27, 2012 at 6:55am

My last property assessment is a joke! My deferred comp after 20 years did much better than a 41 year home assessment.

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on March 27, 2012 at 12:50pm

If the issue was seen as "US" UR and the community - and if we worked together - we just might be able to get the police and the city to be more responsive to our collective needs and concerns!! If a bridge robbery results in an all out 'search' and media attention and a murder at the Plymouth highrise or a robbery on Penhurst results in no information or lack of police response we cannot blame this on the UR - "THEY" are not the ones responding to these various crimes! I think we need to join with UR, use their power/influence to get what WE need. As long as "we" (the SW citizens) view "them" (the UR) as the problem then the stronger of those 2 entities will "win"! In the same way people have tried to 'bridge the gap' between the various community organizations (i.e. 19th ward, plex, swan, etc), "we" should try to do the same with UR. TOGETHER (neighborhoods and University) we'd be a force that the CITY (RPD, etc) cannot ignore!

If our neighborhood continues to view UR as the enemy or evil empire then we will most definitely lose!

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Permalink Reply by hellen davis on March 27, 2012 at 1:22pm

Thank God for the UR Community..without them I think this side of river would be, all but forgotten! It is certainly in their best financial interest to see this neighborhood survive and florish. As for the police, we need to find a balance. When they crack down we cry profiling. When they don't respond at all, we cry neglect! So the thugs/thieves think they can operate with impunity.. and that's exactly what they are doing!

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Permalink Reply by Barbara Warren on April 9, 2012 at 2:02pm

I enjoy the increase in foot and bike traffic caused by the influx of students, to say nothing of the increase to my business. Yes, sometimes students can be thoughtless, but they CERTAINLY have no monopoly there. I live on Elba Street, and really enjoy the mix of students, young families, and older people (like me) who live here. And every time I've needed to call the police they've arrived in moments. I do absolutely agree that lighting is needed on the new bridge -- although technically the trail is closed at night, there are many hours of darkness especially in winter when it is officially open

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Connelly on March 27, 2012 at 2:20pm

Here is a model of a community compact between a college (Holy Cross) and the larger community:

http://offices.holycross.edu/president/presidential-communications/...

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Permalink Reply by John Boutet on March 28, 2012 at 1:43am

Wow Kathleen! This sounds like a great model to explore with the U of R and the City.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Coleman on April 14, 2012 at 8:17am

I think the threats posed by the southwest are very legitimate public safety concerns, whereas I see the threats from the UofR more as disturbance issues and legitimate concerns regarding the direction of the development they choose to undertake here. That's really apples and oranges to me, especially since the public safety issues would still be affecting us outside of the UofR being a cofactors to it. I may be of the minority viewpoint in this regard but I think that overall, having the UofR next to us probably reduces crime here. They're e largest employer in the city and I would hazard a guess that they employ many people in the SW. Parts of our area are pretty rough as it is and things only get nastier when people can't find ways of feeding their families legitimately.

In the long term I think our community hs more to gain by finding ways to make these students want to live in Rochester permanently! I think most of us were young a dumb at one point.