The opinions expressed on this page reflect only the views of the editor of williamsport.com (because I can) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or attitudes of the fine people of the Williamsport area.

Is Downtown Williamsport Safe After Dark?

Recently the local daily paper posed a question to people on the street asking in essence, if they felt safe in downtown Williamsport after dark. The crux of the accompanying article insinuated the question was a reasonable one. The responses varied with a single exception. All mentioned they do not frequent the downtown area after dark.

Williamsport.com applauds the Sun-Gazette’s efforts to place the opinions of area residents in a public forum presumably with the intention of initiating discussion among the citizenry. Communication, the honest exchange of ideas and opinions is a wholesome cornerstone of progress. However, the Sun-Gazette failed to point out that most crimes reported within the city limits occurs outside the downtown area. The fact is there are a number of “residential” areas with a crime rate that is 10 to 100 times that of downtown.

Granted, no one wants to be that rare one in twenty or even one in a hundred crime victims that might occur in the center city area. And let’s be honest, does Williamsport have a crime problem? The answer is yes. Is it downtown? The answer is no.

To address the first question “is there a crime problem” one has to have been living in a cave (or Mayor Wolf’s house) to have lived here for any length of time and be immune to the stories of transplanted Philadelphia hoods shooting and stabbing one another. In the interviews Williamsport.com has conducted the general consensus has been, “if we can’t stop them from coming, let’s at least teach them to shoot straight. That way they won’t hurt innocent (the good) people and they’ll eventually solve the problem for us.”

The second question is the purpose of this editorial and that question is “Is Downtown Williamsport safe after dark?” Contrary to what the Sun-Gazette interviews would lead you to believe, the answer is a definite yes. Violent crime is virtually nill in the downtown area.

The acts of violence reported weekly if not daily in the local paper occur in areas that were at one time good family neighborhoods but over the years have transformed from owner occupied dwellings to rental properties owned by absentee landlords. While this is a serious problem, it is not really relative to downtown Williamsport.

The city has taken the first steps to addressing the problem of increased violent crime with the codes inspection program for rental properties. If the City of Williamsport wants to continue to survive on the taxes paid by local businesses, the city needs to redeploy foot patrolmen “walking the beat” throughout the downtown area. They need to do so if for no other reason than to reverse the perception that downtown is unsafe and that our police department has lost control. It would also help the downtown merchants if the Sun-Gazette would print the real statistics that show the crime everyone fears is not downtown.

What the Sun-Gazette reported is valid only in that it continues to be a perception held by those who don’t know first hand of which they speak! Downtown Williamsport merchants have done a marvelous job in promoting the arts on the first Friday of every month, of putting together a unified Mardi-Gras promotion (despite the heavy handed police presence), celebrating our nation’s birthday on July 4th, and most importantly, presenting Williamsport as hometown USA with the Little League Grand Slam Parade.

Williamsport.com salutes the efforts of all the downtown merchants and urges the City to work with the merchants to change the public perception without creating a police state.

(In memory of  Jimmy Marchessi, foot patrolman in downtown Williamport and friend to all).

- Editor