UB Steps Up Violence Prevention Efforts
If you live in the University Heights, it’s on your mind every time you leave your house, walk to school, walk to the bus, or walk to the store – especially at night. Recent violence has shaken the neighborhood and left many questioning whether or not the University at Buffalo could or should be doing more. As a show of good faith and as a first step in the right direction, UB is taking to the streets this Saturday, going door-to-door to increase awareness.
“Operation Door Hanger” will give more than 4,000 door hangers out to 40 city streets in the University Heights area. The hangers are filled with tips on how to stay safe and be a good neighbor. Students and other residents of the Heights area will all receive the pamphlet in the interest of providing a better standard of safety to all the Heights residents – not just those affiliated with the university.
Something as simple as knowing your neighbors and not traveling alone at night makes the community safer for everyone. Though it may seem inane, by encouraging neighbors to form a better community atmosphere, it can help ensure the safety of the whole neighborhood rather than each individual resident focusing only on themselves. The pamphlets will also provide contact information for UB’s Community Relations Office and the Mayor’s Resolution Line so residents have an avenue to address other safety or behavioral issues.
To help curb rowdy behavior even further, the university has made an agreement with the Buffalo Police Department to target and break up loud and obnoxious parties that often plague the Heights. They will also be initiating a clean-up program and taking steps to stop parties before they even start. Furthermore, UB is purchasing three security cameras to be monitored by the Buffalo Police Department. They will be placed in problem areas in the neighborhood to help deter criminal activities, whatever they may be, but also serve as a witness to any crimes should they happen.
The details of the cameras and installation date are still being worked out, so for now, the university is giving back by hanging door hangers. You’ll see UB students out in the Heights area hanging the door hangers from 1 PM until 4 PM this upcoming Saturday, September 13th. If they get rained out, they’ll try again the next day at the same time.
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al-alo
door hangers! that should do it. all is safe, go, go all u freshman, enjoy Bailey Ave!!!
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al-alo
ooo ooo, do they have "mission accomplished" door hangers?
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Einstein
One way to be safe in University Heights is to leave the area.
If the Police wanted to do something for the University Heights, then target the street gangs, the drug dealers, and the welfare losers who hang out on their porches and threaten people as they pass. The four guys who were arrested for beating a man and stealing his car, right in front of their house, are back on their porch on Minnesota Ave. Well, at least three of them were there on Tuesday, drinking from open containers at 1:00 PM. Why not crackdown on this social crime instead of going for the least confrontational target.
What is wrong with the Buffalo Police? Why is that you can ask any resident of Buffalo where the hot spots are for crime and they will run down a 15 - 20 point list; but the Police can't seem to figure out how to identify these areas? How can the average resident feel safe if the Police are too afraid to make arrests in these neighborhoods without five cars and ten officers backing them up?
Maybe we should just park a bunch of cars illegally to see if that will provoke the Buffalo Police to take action, or does that only happen when they are whining about their contracts and pay raises?
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al-alo
and why are there not more sheriffs patrols? are they off in Eden looking for lapsed registration tags? if 2/3 (or whatever) of the crime in the county takes place in a few locations - why are county officers not targeting those areas?
i can understand a need for some basic coverage in rural communities, however why should I as a city taxpayer pay for both city and county police services when i only see the county @ special events?
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SnarkFest
UB expects the student to act like adults. Unfortunately, UB didn't specify which adults. But anyway, the students didn't live up to expectations so UB is instituting programs and pursuing initiatives (instead of coughing up some bucks to patrol the area surrounding the campus.)
Whats really going on in the Heights: http://buffalowatch.blogspot.com/
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heathersmiles
Snarkfest - I thought that the UB Public Safety officers had limited jurisdiction in the University Heights. Has this changed?
It is funny to hear University Heights residents complain about the students. There were similar issues at Georgetown a few years ago, where residents were filming the students as they returned from bars or hosted parties. They brought all of this to the common council and the University and where asked if they had ever reached out to the students to set expectations, and the overwhelming answer was "no, that is the job of the University and the Police".
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d_a_n
I think it's fairly obvious what's happening in the area. You have a perfect storm of students who don't care about the neighborhood renting from slumlords who care even less. Families, professionals, and those who don't want to be surrounded by frats and bros partying all night move out. Criminals move in (figuratively) because students are easy targets, especially when their landlords don't care. These problems all feed themselves, and there's no easy answer.
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mycrows
Operation Door Hanger sounds like a good waste of money. At least UB kids will be getting their community service out of the way early this year. Pats on the back all around!
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johnb820
I haven't had a single issue here on Springville since the semester started. I'm disappointed I didn't get a door hanger! I wish we could have been informed of the state of the two recent assault victims. One wasn't even a student wandering around campus and the other I do not know. Were they drunk? In other words, did they bring these problems on themselves? We, as in the student body, were not well informed of what exactly happened which is a shame.
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TaurNuFuin866
johnb820, the Buffalo News reported that of the two rape victims, the student was listening to an iPod somewhere outside of her dorm when she was attacked, while the other was walking across campus through a poorly lit, rarely trafficked spot. Which is to say that they did on some level put themselves at a risk: one could not expect to be aware of her surroundings, the other was dangerously isolated. But, of course, UB did a wonderful job of not reporting any of these details, thus leaving the student body free to wonder whether the problem was infinitely more or less serious than it is.
The sad part about these signs is that - judging from what I've seen in classes and when I was still living in the dorms - any number of UB's students actually would benefit from even such 'obvious' precautions as this. Just as they would probably benefit from further, blazingly obvious precautions such as 'don't stroll about with your valuables obvious for all to see,' 'don't use an iPod after dark and never have the volume so high that you cannot hear the surroundings,' etc, etc. But all of that could have been reported in a way that wastes less time, money and energy.
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