For years I have heard people say that fear of crime discourages people from entering Reading to visit the GoggleWorks and other places and events in Berks County’s only city.
Reading, as the county seat and a city with public transportation and the centers of many social services, draws the sorts of people that others might not want to share the street with.
West Reading’s and Hamburg’s downtowns don’t have that problem, said Downtown Improvement District Boss Chuck Broad, a former Reading police chief.
Yet crime is so much easier to blame than prejudice for Reading’s problems. Do you think the governor would show up at a Xenophobia Summit?]
In any case, whizzing bullets and random thuggery are sort of the urban mythology of Reading.
“We need to take away the things that make it attractive for them [criminals] to come here to play with guns, steal what they need, sell drugs to schoolchildren and make so many fear to cross the Penn Street Bridge into the city,” F. Alan Shirk wrote in a letter to the Reading Eagle editor last week.
The Downtown Improvement District recognizes the perception that Reading is dangerous and is concerned about it, Broad said.
It’s tough to change that idea once people have it in their minds, he said, and he believes the local media reinforce – but don’t sensationalize – the idea by reporting crimes.
Even when police statistics show a significant, long-term decline in serious crime, it likely won’t change the public perception of a crime-drenched city, Barry J. Harvey, assistant professor in the criminal justice department at Alvernia University, told the Reading Eagle in January.
"It isn't so much about crime statistics as it is about perception," Harvey said. "The bottom line is if you look at statistics, Reading is really no more violent and no more crime-ridden than many of the cities in Pennsylvania.”
Some people say only non-city Berks residents think the city is too dangerous to visit. Broad said people who come from outside of Berks don’t mention a fear of crime when he chats with them at events.
There is less crime in the downtown area than in some other parts of town, but when a crime occurs in any part of Reading it often gets wrongly associated with downtown, Broad said.
Over the summer, the police officers who work in Reading public schools as resource officers have been reassigned downtown. DID asked for a dedicated police officer to patrol downtown, but the city declined. Police Chief William Heim wrote me that it was a matter of “a matter of cost and resource allocation.” My interpretation: Other parts of the city need police coverage more than downtown.
Some question the idea that many people think the city is too dangerous to enter.
There is no evidence that fear of crime is a significant issue, Kevin Murphy, head of the Berks County Community Foundation, in Reading, told me in an e-mail.
He said events have good attendance and shops have enough customers.“A couple of years ago, I took my boys to see ‘Larry The Cable Guy.’ It was a packed house of people who, to my eye, appeared to be residents of our rural areas.”
State Sen. Judy Schwank, a Democrat who represents Reading, said many people harbor fears about going downtown in any city – but that people will visit when there is something fun to do.
“We have had concerts and other events at the Sovereign Center that are sold out. Royals games regularly draw thousands of spectators. And the Goggleworks is lively on the weekends.”
No comments:
Post a Comment