City Newspaper Archives - 12/2007
DEVELOPMENT: UR housing needs that fence
Published on Dec 04, 2007
It is University of Rochester students like me who are going to live in those apartments, not members of PLEX. It's no secret that among us students: there is a stigma that the area "over the footbridge" is considered unsafe. Residents of that community may try to convince us otherwise, directing us to the presence of Neighborhood Watch programs and crime-reducing self-improvements, but I speak honestly when I say that students are not so easily convinced.
We pay good money to attend the University, and we expect our housing to be safe. If that means having preventative security measures like a gated fence around the perimeter, safety bars on first-floor windows, and a lack of apartment entrances facing Plymouth Avenue, then so be it. We aren't asking the members of PLEX to modify their own backyards, so why should we modify ours?
Students will be moving into the apartments next fall. What needs to then happen for Yurtchuk to realize that he made a big mistake? Trespassing? Students' vehicles or windows being vandalized? Burglary? Robbery? Homicide?
Sorry to be so negative, but some sort of infraction is bound to happen, and when it does, the regrets will have arrived too late.
Yurtchuk needs to grow a backbone and follow through with his modified site plan now. Remember that these apartments are on private property and are being built for us students, not the public. We demand a safe living area!
NELSON GERMAN, ROCHESTER
German, who is originally from the Bronx, is a UR student, Class of 2010.
