Signs posted on the entrances to nearly every building on campus warn students of another incident in the University Heights. It's these warnings that give students impression that a wave of crime has overcome the neighborhood of cheap-rent houses and fraternity parties.
But maybe the Heights area, with its near-3,000 college student population, has been dealing with the issue of crime long before most super seniors started living there. Or maybe the issue isn't crime, but the hype that accompanies it and blows it out of proportion.
"[Crime] comes and goes in waves," said Vincent Clark, director of the Office of Community Relations.
Clark, a resident of the Heights for 11 years, adamantly declared that the Heights are "one of the safest neighborhoods in the City of Buffalo."
Current University District Councilwoman Bonnie Russell sees the incidents in the Heights to be no more prevalent than any other district.
"What draws more attention is that it involves students," she said. "That brings a higher alert level."
The Heights roughly extends from South Campus to LaSalle Avenue, constrained by Kenmore and Bailey Avenues. The Heights is located within the E-district, one of five districts that make up the Buffalo area. Within that district, the Heights has the lowest amount, according to Mary Clare Fahey, off-campus services and relations coordinator with Student Life
The E-district as a whole, however, is one of the top two districts for crime.
"Relative to neighborhoods within the city, crime is very low," Fahey said. "Relative to Amherst, crime is kind of high. It's just a matter of perspective about where you are."
Pat Zimmer, a junior business major who used to live on Merrimac Street, said he got used to having homeless people regularly searching through his trash.
"It's a little more urban," Zimmer said. "It's a different demographic."
According to the Office of Community Relations, 721 crimes were committed in the Heights area last year out of 6,086 committed in the E-district as a whole. The majority were burglaries and larcenies. Other crimes ranged from assault, to possession of a controlled substance, to criminal mischief.
"The crime that we have is crime of opportunity," Fahey said. "This includes car break-ins, burglaries, and robberies that happen when precautions aren't taken. If someone looked in your car and saw nothing but your back seat, they're not going to break in."
Females out at night seem to be invitations to criminals. Lourdes Santana, a sophomore nursing major, said she was robbed last year while out with two of her girl friends.
"Crime happens because we're targets...because people make themselves targets," Santana said.
One of two men suspected in the Feb. 28 armed-robbery of a UB student, and possibly five other previous robberies, has been arrested. His accomplice in the robberies is still at large.
In the past three weeks, there have been two separate incidents of group assault on an individual alone in the Heights late at night. Both beatings took place near Main Street, within 100 feet of each other, according to The Buffalo News.
Michael DeGeorge, Buffalo Police spokesman, said that over the last two months police have noticed a "slight increase" in robberies in the Heights. In response, Buffalo Police have added extra patrols in the area.
UB police have also observed the recent hike in crime. Chief of Police Gerald Schoenle said he has noticed more robberies against UB students over the past two semesters.
"Students make good targets," Schoenle said. "If they're not familiar with the urban environment they might not take the same safety precautions as someone from the area."
The Heights district, however, is not a part of the University Police Department's jurisdiction. Schoenle has no control over the police presence in the area.
"What we do feel obligated to do is to educate our students and warn them," Schoenle said.
Others see the recent robberies as being part of a substantial growth in crime in the Heights rather than a short spurt of incidents.
"I've seen over the progression of years, the level of crime increasing," said Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant. Grant was the University District council member from 2000 to 2004 and has lived in the area since 1972. She said she first noticed the neighborhood start to change in the 1990s, when formerly family-owned houses became vacant and were rented out.
"It was absolutely a safer place and a cleaner place," Grant said. "Now there's a mixture of young people who don't have stake in the houses that we as homeowners had."
As the Heights became the cheaper alternative to on-campus living for students, the houses began to bear the burden of renters and their parties with little investment in the wellbeing of the neighborhood, according to Grant.
Fahey, who often consults with students about resident complaints, said that late-night partying often leads to pizza boxes, plastic cups and other trash scattered across the lawns in the Heights.
"The more people litter like that, the more it brings down the neighborhood. And the worse a neighborhood looks, the more there is crime, it seems," Fahey said. "If students take better care of their houses then things improve."
A Buffalo resident all her life, Fahey said the issue of crime in the Heights has been around since she graduated high school in the 1980s. She hasn't noticed an increase.
"I don't really see a difference in the type of crime or the amount, just that the perpetrators are younger," Fahey said.
One of the best ways to deter crime is to know your neighbors, according to Fahey. Students should introduce themselves to their neighbors on either side of their house and across the street.
"The more you know people in your community the more you know who doesn't belong, and you can call the police when you see somebody that doesn't belong," Fahey said.
Councilwoman Russell believes the solution to both the issue of safety and that of resident complaints about students' partying is to have permanent residents come together with students through organizations like the University Heights Collaborative - a group of local block clubs that meet once a month.
"Over the last five years I've been in office, I've seen maybe four students at these meetings," Russell said. "But how many of them know about it? The university definitely isn't encouraging them to go."
Clark, the UB community relation's director, said his office is involved in the Problem Properties Task Force, a group of law enforcement officials and residents who gather monthly to discuss issues of crime in the Heights. Students are rarely in attendance, according to Clark. The meetings are not announced publicly, but through e-mail listservs, which do include some students.
UB also sponsors programs in the Heights like the farmers' market and spring clean-ups to build student-resident relations.
"The cleaner it is, the safer it feels. And the safer it feels, the more people are willing to be out and about in the community," Clark said. "It has a positive ripple effect when the community is in proper condition."
Despite the efforts UB makes in the community, Russell said more needs to be done to address the issues, like having President Simpson talk with residents at a Collaborative meeting. She also said that UB should give out consequences for disorderly behavior like littering and overcrowded house parties.
"I personally think they could all be one big happy community," Russell said. "So long as the people who start the problems know there's some kind of consequences behind them."
Whether crime is on the rise in the Heights or media hype creates unnecessary fear, or even whether or not student carelessness is to blame, the warning signs continue to be posted across campus. They stand as a reminder that students aren't immune to the realities beyond UB's borders. But that doesn't keep students from taking up residence there.
"The crime is something that I think about every single day. It's something that never leaves my head," said Owen MacDonald, a junior aerospace engineering major who lives on Englewood Avenue. "It wears on you. But at the same time, I wouldn't really want to live anywhere else."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
