Student Task Force To Target Party Houses

While college houses have been an issue in Roxborough and Manayunk for years, Andrew Bantly, president of the Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association, said the problem is now being targeted in a different way.

"Now we're looking at the problem collectively," he said at the civic association's meeting earlier this month.

City and state officials, police from the 5th and 39th district as well as university representatives are now working in tandem to ease some of the tension between residents and college students in the area.

The Student Task Force, that was proposed by Councilman Curtis Jones last year, started across the river at St. Joseph's University, Bantley said.

Now on this side of the river, Bantly said officials and the police are working to target pocket problem neighborhoods, including portions of Terrace Street that one resident called "the new Main Street from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m."

Residents cited college students throwing beer, tormenting dogs and urinating in inappropriate outdoor places.

"This is not going to change overnight," Bantly said.

The task force first met in October and discussed "hot days" for trouble such as Halloween, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the beginning of college semesters and St. Patrick's Day.

"We are all trying to work at this," Bantly said. "There has been nothing in place like this before. Now it's not just the police."

Officials from St. Joseph's University and Philadelphia University were cited as working with the task force.

"This is ground zero," he said of the new project. "It's going to be tough but we need to work at it together, show the city that these issues are important to us. We want schools to know that we're not against the students, we just want them to respect where they live."