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go_berds t1_j5ok9i1 wrote

When I was a student at temple all the discourse was about how Temple students were hurting the community and destroying the neighborhood. There was even a “defund TU Police” Instagram account that had a big following. I’m seeing a lot less of that sentiment recently. And all I can say is it’s about fucking time

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BasileusLeoIII t1_j5ommb2 wrote

> When I was a student at temple all the discourse was about how Temple students were hurting the community and destroying the neighborhood.

hate this so much

Temple is by far the largest employer of "locals" in the region, is the only bastion of safety and cleanliness, and does an enormous amount to ""give back"" to the community that hates it despite "taking" nothing in the first place

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go_berds t1_j5on3qf wrote

The hospital alone is a godsend

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NonIdentifiableUser t1_j5pkszj wrote

Imagine what the murder rate would look like without the two university hospital trauma centers that treat the clowns that shoot each other.

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porkchameleon t1_j5vggsf wrote

The word was that for GSW and serious trauma they were the best place in the city (since they statistically saw more).

Silver lining.

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Immortalone9 t1_j5p35vm wrote

There’s a bunch of charity organizations that get funded by Temple as well. My senior year I worked on a team that provided funding to many of those.

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Effective_Golf_3311 t1_j5qz7dj wrote

As a former student… we were the problem, always. That was drilled into us from day 1 by the school and the community and the only reason the community was shitty because of us.

Granted none of that was true, but some powerful people were convinced it was so we bore the brunt of it.

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mustang__1 t1_j5yompb wrote

Safety and cleanliness are gentrification, which is bad for the community since.... I guess rental and home prices will go up.

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SteveJeltz t1_j5opxac wrote

>When I was a student at temple all the discourse was about how Temple students were hurting the community and destroying the neighborhood.

Don't worry, once the university announces its next capital project all of the "community activists" will come out of hiding to bitch and moan about how Temple is a bad neighbor.

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NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn t1_j5ouomj wrote

And when that happens, this time Temple should build the project specifically as a giant middle finger to the community. Temple tippie toes around everything and as an alum it pisses me off. The stadium proposal was specifically designed to be as non-invasive as possible and they couldn’t even explain the proposal at a town hall before being shouted down by activists.

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go_berds t1_j5ovn6s wrote

That stadium site was almost entirely surrounded by student housing too

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NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn t1_j5p4suh wrote

Yup. I think there were like two or three houses that were occupied by local residents directly bordered by the stadium, and only one of them initially disliked the proposal, but once they learned that there was not going to be non-residential parking allowed in the neighborhoods on gameday, they were fine with it. Now, I don’t know how realistic a lot of the promises were, but that proposal went above and beyond to try to placate the neighbors. They were planning to dig as deep as possible so that the stadium was no taller than the surrounding row homes and only use it for a limited amount of events per year (Football games and Commencement if I recall correctly). They also were going to build a state of the art childcare center adjacent to campus where local residents would be able to enroll their kids for free, and all stadium related jobs were to have preferred hiring for residents of the local area. It was an extraordinary effort from the university to try to meet the needs of Temple while also not fucking over the neighborhood, and they got spit on.

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DonHedger t1_j5phw8a wrote

Temple is a bad neighbor and a fairly shitty employer. It can simultaneously be the case that the area Temple is situated in is dangerous and needs policing/intervention and that Temple is going about it in a negative or unhelpful way.

EDIT: lmao, y'all are fucking nuts. Why on earth would you want to live amongst a community you feel so at war with? Chances are most of you are MBA alums or undergrads who don't actually live in North Philly or interact with Temple all that much. Here's Temple suggesting they'll deport international graduate workers (1/3 of their workforce, mind you) who strike: https://www.inquirer.com/news/temple-university-graduate-students-strike-20221111.html

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Mikemo05 t1_j5scswn wrote

Defunding the police made its way west. Students want DUPD and Penn PD gone. To those people I hope you come to the real word before college ends.

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j5sp9sd wrote

I think many young people in Philly were caught up in the protests and the police brutality cases that should not have happened. They had been under lockdown for a few months and going to protest was a way to get out of the house for a good cause. Although I do not approve of police brutality I was never behind defund the police in Philly or any big city for that matter. PPD has some serious problems that need to be dealt with, but there was already a ridiculous amount of crime. To think that it wouldn’t increase if police presence were reduced in Philly was naive.

I was in a local establishment a couple of days ago, and I live in CC, a supposedly “safe” area. This was about 9:00 pm. When I walked in no one was there and I placed an order. 5 minutes later the employees are upset because several young men came in and declared they needed to charge their phones. They were not buying anything. Charging their phones meant moving furniture in the place to use an outlet! WTH? The two customers behind me quickly left. The employee told the young men to leave and that could not come in there every night. They refused. Most likely they were armed and with only 3 employees what could they do? The employees were talking about the lack of a security guard in the place. I know they were scared.I consider myself lucky to get my stuff and get out of there. I walked home pretty fast. This is not something I have ever seen in the 15 years living in the area, and the first time I felt unsafe in a business.

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enn_sixty_four t1_j5tapzw wrote

I mean Philly cops haven't done shit since 2020 since they're upset we wanted the cops nationally to stop killing black people and locally wanted them to not brutalize protestors for bogus reasons

The hardest they worked since then was when they tracked down that girl who torched their car via her profile pic from an Etsy comment.

So yeah I'm still in favor of defunding them. I'd rather my taxes goto anything else than the pockets and pensions of a bunch of cowards who pull shit like this.

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j5twzwe wrote

I remember the incident. For sure it was wrong. However, the all or nothing is not going to be positive for the city. There needs to be an attempt at a truce, getting rid of the bad cops and building up the decent ones.

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enn_sixty_four t1_j5u03qe wrote

The cops currently soft striking for the last three yrs isn't positive for the city. The cops "why bother?" attitude since 2020 isn't positive for the city. The loads of cops who have been racist misogynistic douchebag creeps towards my loved ones, for decades before 2020, weren't positive for the city.

Defund isn't the same as abolish.

"Getting rid of bad cops" wait, a minute ago you didn't want less police but now you want to get rid of the majority??

"A truce" between who? Us, and the cops who beat and harass the taxpayers they're paid to protect? A truce between us and the police commissioner who lied until the new York times and Inquirer called her out? Us, and the cops who told the violent dudes with weapons "can you guys leave so we can arrest the protesters for curfew"?

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UndercoverPhilly t1_j5u1x1k wrote

This is a thread about Temple. The majority of students and parents seem to want more police as do many residents in the city. It's a complicated issue so I apologize if my response is contradictory in certain points. I don't think it is a either/or and that type of thinking is not going to help. The crime situation DEFINITELY can get worse, not just at Temple but around the city.

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growtilltall757 t1_j5oq66e wrote

I thought it was about the late night drunken carousing and developers of cheap student housing pushing locals out. Maybe that was yet another era. I missed the defund era was out of school for 10 years before that became a protest phrase.

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31November t1_j5orudp wrote

It’s all relative. Better to deal with drunk students than lose a massive university in the neughborhood providing jobs and an entire extra police force.

I don’t know what the alternative would be other than just leaving the area that is now Temple as just another poor neighborhood in Northern Philly.

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throws_rocks_at_cars t1_j5p18kf wrote

The university has been there for literally since the 1880s. Every single person that lives near the school had decided affirmatively to choose Temple as a neighbor.

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BasileusLeoIII t1_j5p3i1l wrote

What's more, it was an industrial white working class neighborhood. There isn't even an argument that the locals' ancestors were there before Temple.

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Mcjibblies t1_j5qct2m wrote

I swear…. So you’re saying the schools ability to employ low wage jobs is more important than them paying the proper amount of taxes and having a strong public school district or direct investment in the neighboring communities?

…. Over 40+ years….?

Please have the ability to understand more of the full picture.

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go_berds t1_j5qe6hz wrote

Lol Temple is pretty much the only form of investment in the neighborhood, it brings an extra police force, better security measures, restaurants and jobs. Not to mention a large hospital network and other benefits such as a dental school that routinely provide free and affordable checkups to community residents

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Mcjibblies t1_j5ti3ll wrote

Look up Temple University 990.

Understand what’s in this document.

When you do, then we can discuss how over and extended period of time, having the largest employer in a few neighborhoods only contribute to the region with lower wage jobs rather than their fair amount of taxes would erode the systems that prop it up.

This is the crux of the matter. Not whatever you’re saying.

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go_berds t1_j5ti8qz wrote

But are low wage jobs somehow worse than no jobs? Because that’s the alternative

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Mcjibblies t1_j5v7lyg wrote

So, the largest employer along broad street, by far, has not paid taxes since at least 1954.

You gotta come correct. Trickle down has been proven time and time again to not work.

UChicago business school has literally screwed the entire country into believing taxes are bad, then raise them high enough in the surrounding areas so that poorer people can’t move into them and enjoy the benefits that higher taxes offer.

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Mikemo05 t1_j5sd1ey wrote

The people who work there pay taxes. They are the only thing propping up that area. Not to mention the countless businesses they keep going. To say temple is bad for that area shows you don’t understand the full picture.

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Mcjibblies t1_j5tibbe wrote

Temple is a nonprofit. You think the people in the region paying 10 to 12% taxes is more than that entity paying whatever the corporate tax rate is now?

…..over 40+ years, no less….?

This isn’t even a difficult math problem.

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Mikemo05 t1_j5tleqt wrote

Bold of you to assume ppl in that area pay taxes.

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Mcjibblies t1_j5v7y0o wrote

Wage taxes, sure. They don’t own the property. They pay rent to someone who refuses to have the property reassessed or upgraded for fear of owning more.

And there’s this gleaming structure, damn near $1Bil endowment, zero contributed to the public schools literally adjacent to its campus.

It’s laughable, really.

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Mikemo05 t1_j5vl98q wrote

They have zero responsibility to help the community. They do more than what’s fair. College is a business.

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Raecino t1_j5pitjp wrote

Temple destroying the community and temple students suffering the effects of crime are two different, separate things. The fact that you correlate the two things shows your own disgusting frame of mind on the issue ie. You assume the community and crime are one and the same.

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Hashslingingslashar t1_j5pvmha wrote

How is Temple destroying the community exactly? By adding extra police? Providing jobs? Keeping the area clean? Educating young people? Please do tell me how Temple is “ruining” the neighborhood.

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synthetikxangel t1_j5q5nuk wrote

Most people who work at Temple don’t live near Temple. They commute.

Landlords are money hungry. They would rather rent a bedroom in a 4bd/2ba to a student for 1200 a month then rent the whole house to a family for a fair amount.

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Spoons_N t1_j5qi9ra wrote

Actually no, most people who work at Temple live near Temple. Maybe not professors, but security, food service, and the janitorial team positions are all open to Temple’s neighbors before they open up the position to other people. (Temple accidentally sent an email out to all @temple.edu email holders explaining this and also stating criminal background didn’t matter and they’d provide SEPTA fair if needed).

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