Last week, ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai’s office organized a lighting and safety walk on Southside — a welcome initiative that shows some in the student government’s executive branch are serious about improving student safety. And the presence of a couple of Berkeley City Council members demonstrates a similar attentiveness to the problem from local officials.
But is it enough?
Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniak mentioned some short-term fixes to safety issues, such as installing new lighting and clearing pedestrian walkways. While it is encouraging to see city officials proactive about immediate fixes that can be done to help the problem, there is little sign these measures do anything to address long-term student safety issues.
Fixing crime and creating a safer environment for students can’t be accomplished through instant solutions. While it would be nice to add more cars to the BearWALK fleet or use newer, more environmentally sustainable bulbs on street corners, campus and city leaders also need to collaborate on a long-term plan to create a secure living space for Berkeley students.
In her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” urban theorist Jane Jacobs argued that crime was not the result of an imbalanced equation of cops and robbers but rather a symptom of deeper social ills. Berkeley is a city with a number of complicated problems, ranging from staggering wealth inequality to surging rents, and to adequately address the crime issue, we must also tackle the socioeconomic causes that foster criminal activity.
That is not to say we can only develop economically oriented solutions, however. Increasing awareness of the night shuttle and expanding its reach are tangible steps that would produce meaningful gains for the Berkeley student community. For the many students who stay up late working on campus and live farther away than Clark Kerr or Foothill, those drop-off points are inadequate.
For these reasons, among many others, it was welcome to hear Worthington express support for a “bolder, more comprehensive approach” to addressing crime in Berkeley. Developing action plans that unite Berkeley residents and students, expand police presence to places students use at night and create a greater sense of community investment are all elements of any “comprehensive approach” that could succeed at making Berkeley safer.
And with a new chancellor and fresh academic year ahead of us, what better time to act than now?