UC Loses Control of Student Security to Thugs (Cincinnati, Warren: neighborhood, buying)

[Wilson513]

This problem goes directly to the President of the University. No one else is responsible. UC has a force of 50 mostly CPD rejects and promoted rent-a-cops. Ono controls them. He could also create a volunteer organization like Citizens on Patrol to cover the very small area where these crimes are being committed. Let's call that area The Hunting Ground. What is it? 20 streets around UC? 50-100 linear blocks to patrol? So far, Ono is doing exactly squat in the off campus student housing area.

[unusualfire]

Why not put the blame on the criminals? We can't control what other humans do.

[progmac]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

I'd feel safer having my kid at Columbia or NYU than at UC.

And that's only because you aren't so involved in the minutia of local news or so invested in those places...certainly you see that. UCs problems are far, far, far from unique.

[kpl1228]

UC is an interesting place. It is not Miami U or University of Dayton. UD students call their housing the Ghetto, yet the neighborhood the college sits in is far from an actual ghetto. There are some parallels...both campuses are in the heart of the city, but the similarities end there I think.
UC has more in common with University of Chicago or maybe NYC's Columbia University really, or maybe University of Detroit or even USC. Much of it surrounded by what could truly be called a bad neighborhood, with bus lines and a strip of college shops and bars, and some truly historic beautiful houses, some fixed up and some not. Not to mention hospitals virtually attached to it. It is always going to be a rougher place to go to school as a result.....especially at night. And if not for the hospitals and density on the college strip of shops and clubs, it would be even rougher. Id have no problem having my kid go to UC.....but I'd want her to be in a dorm in the heart of campus. At night the place transforms, especially in the quieter dark places away from Clifton and the heart of campus. It has always been like this and will continue to be but parents and students need to accept that it is part of the deal if you sign up to attend there. But increased gates with guardhouses and security patrols are probably needed, and make those things much more visible to all. Its been done on campuses before without diminishing a college's connection or commitment to its city.

[cgs2000]

Perhaps we have an information overload these days? It is always tempting when aware of many severe problems to look for someone to blame, whether it is a president (of a university or country!) or some other functionary. That simplifies life for us by blaming an individual who may be doing a 'good enough' job for not 'leaping tall buildings in a single bound'...sorry that shows my age! Cowboy movies warped our judgement by teaching that there are good guys wearing white hats and bad guys with black hats...if only the causality of evil were that simple.

[Wilson513]

Actually, there is a person who is responsible for the safety of the young people that come to the University of Cincinnati. His name is Santa Ono. He is not a "scapegoat" or a "person to blame" he is actually the only person who has the authority and the resources to take the actions needed to protect these young people. Their parents in Wisconsin can't do it, the head of student housing can't do it, the cops on the beat can't do it. But he can. When will he do something meaningful like putting three patrol cars on the 20 or so side streets where students live and let them patrol continuously?

[unusualfire]

^You are on the wrong forum if you want to get him replaced.

[goyguy]

UC has straddled the boundary between "nice" and "sketchy" neighborhoods for decades. There have been random late-night muggings - south and east of campus in particular - since...maybe not since Hector was a pup but since goyguy was a child. What's changed the most is that students are freely flaunting their pricy little handheld gadgets and staying mesmerized by them at the same time. Easy targets for the latest transistor radios in the '60s phased into easy targets for Walkmans, Discmans, etc in the '80s and then on to easy targets for portable phones, "smart" and otherwise. And crime hysteria at UC is as predictable as the leaves on the trees in Burnet Woods changing color. Both take place during autumn every year.

All the shuttle vans and police patrols in the world aren't going to help the typical adolescent who thinks only "stupid" or "weak" people make use of them. This year's Exhibit A in Ohio - though neither a Bearcat nor a crime victim - was the student up the road at Denison who knocked back a few at a local bar last winter. In single-digit weather he left the place without a coat and was found frozen to death the following night. Yet friends were but a call away, and the school had available an all-hours ride service "with no questions asked." Should the president of the university have resigned over it?

What's curious to me is why no one connects the dots between the rise in problems around UC (debatable) and the gentrification down the hill in Over-the-Rhine (not debatable.) At least a few older residents of CUF - specifically on Warner St - have, and have taken to calling their neighborhood "OTR North." On a midsummer's Saturday night the area around Washington Park was teeming with police. Patrol cars glided up and down the streets while two beat cops visited Graeter's and others strolled the vicinity. From Liberty St north to McMillan the saturation level was probably but a fraction of that. Replicate the scenario on a day-to-day basis. Then some careless students get jumped and, with no small amount of assistance from the media, everyone gets all up in arms.

[unusualfire]

^ What's up with the police? Don't they use decoy's any more?

[Wilson513]

Originally Posted by goyguy

UC has straddled the boundary between "nice" and "sketchy" neighborhoods for decades. There have been random late-night muggings - south and east of campus in particular - since...maybe not since Hector was a pup but since goyguy was a child. What's changed the most is that students are freely flaunting their pricy little handheld gadgets and staying mesmerized by them at the same time. Easy targets for the latest transistor radios in the '60s phased into easy targets for Walkmans, Discmans, etc in the '80s and then on to easy targets for portable phones, "smart" and otherwise. And crime hysteria at UC is as predictable as the leaves on the trees in Burnet Woods changing color. Both take place during autumn every year. . . .

Nonsense. I was on the campus in the 60's and lived with friends in Corryville and parked on the side streets around the campus.

There were the Corryville Rats who roamed around at night in gangs of four or more, looking for a fight. But, I never one time even heard of an armed robbery of a student in the seven years I was on campus. We have have had four in the past two weeks.

Goyguy, you need to learn to hold comments to things you actually know something about.