Philadelphia Inquirer

Thursday, January 1, 1998

One lost, one a haven: A tale of 2 city neighborhoods

Those who live there spell Roxborough S-A-F-E.

By Mark Davis,
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Twenty-one years ago, aspiring florist Stan Tropiano decided to buy an established flower shop in Philadelphia - a place blooming with possibilities, with roots in its community.

He narrowed the search to three: one each in the Northeast, the Southwest and Roxborough. Tropiano was methodical, looking at the stores' sales histories, locations - and the crime rate in each neighborhood.

Tropiano liked what he didn't see in Roxborough - gated storefronts and barred windows. He bought a store on the 6000 block of Ridge Avenue, a stretch filled with small shops and tall trees.

``This area was very crime-free,'' Tropiano, a resident of Spring House, Montgomery County, recalled in the fall. ``That was important to me.''

Ask folks to describe Roxborough, and people respond uniformly. Community, say some. Quiet, say others.

And, almost without fail: Safe.

That last sentiment cannot be disputed. Roxborough has the lowest crime rate of any neighborhood in the city.

The safest part of Roxborough is a sliver identified on Fifth Police District maps as K sector. Shaped vaguely like New Jersey and no larger than a half-mile square,

the sector is bounded by Henry Avenue and Wises Mill, Cathedral and Old Line Roads. It's an area of neat homes and quiet streets, trimmed hedges and late-model cars parked in driveways.

Murders? Police didn't record any in 1996, the year for which the most current figures were available. Rape or other violent crimes? None. Property crime? Residents reported one car theft, three attempted car thefts, and three auto break-ins. There was one daytime apartment burglary and four incidents of vandalism.

In all, police investigated 16 crimes in K sector in 1996.

Figures for 1997 were unavailable.

By comparison, the city's most crime-ridden sector, in North Philadelphia's 25th Police District, recorded 617 reported crimes in that year - among them, five homicides, eight rapes, nine aggravated assaults and 194 robberies.

Tropiano isn't surprised that Roxborough ranks at the very bottom of the crime charts. ``But I am happy that, after 21 years, it's been consistently . . . safe,'' he said.

That's because at least three other factors have remained constant, said Capt. George Lopit, commander of the Fifth District.

First, Lopit said, police maintain a ``strong presence'' on the streets. That includes enforcing the city curfew, which requires anyone under 18 to be indoors by 10:30 on weeknights and by midnight Friday and Saturday nights, throughout the district.

Second, a thriving network of town watches makes police aware of kids hanging out on corners, fistfights, underage drinking and other nuisance crime.

Third, said Lopit, the community has a high proportion of families and people living in homes they own, and the median income is well above the city average. In other words, residents have a quality of life worth preserving - and a strong stake in their neighborhood.

A fourth factor is a favorable geographic coincidence: The Fifth District is bounded on the east by Fairmount Park and on the west by the Schuylkill. Fewer roads lead in and out of the area for criminals to use.

Roxborough is popular with police officers, firefighters and other municipal employees, who are required to live in the city. Their presence may not actually make the area safer, residents and business owners say, but it sure makes it feel safer.

The neighborhood, said Louise D'Alessandro, co-owner of a Roxborough real estate agency, has much to recommend it: a wide choice of housing, an easy commute to Center City and other parts of Philadelphia, and a safe atmosphere.

``It's a great community to live in and work in, like a small town,'' said Lopit.

The small-town touches are everywhere. Roxborough is a place of tall hardwoods and short fences, of gardens so small they wouldn't contain a croquet party, a place where impatiens and black-eyed Susans wave at passersby. American flags command porches, reminders that veterans - old men, mostly, who massed and marched to save the world 50 years ago - live here.

Yet there are reminders that Roxborough is very much a part of Philadelphia: Somebody with a can of spray paint tagged a century-old rock wall near Roxborough High School, in spite of a police anti-graffiti detail that patrols the area. Several stores feature hand-lettered signs forbidding more than two students from entering at once.

Shopkeepers shrug when that's pointed out. What can you do? their eyes ask.

Still, Mary Ann and Robert Patrick like the community just the way it is. They've lived in Roxborough for 27 years, having moved from Eighth Street and Hunting Park Avenue in North Philly.

``We came back from vacation, and he said, `That's it, we're moving.' I didn't really want to, but we did,'' said Mary Ann Patrick, standing in the yard outside her house on the 400 block of Lyceum Avenue. ``Now, I love it here.''

``Here'' is a two-story brick dwelling built about a century ago. It rests under conifers and is home to two friendly golden retrievers that slobber and thrust their noses through an old cast-iron fence. Four kids grew up there, and two of them still live in the neighborhood.

She's not surprised to learn that her community is one of the city's safest. ``We already knew that,'' she said, gesturing at the house next door. ``Our neighbor told us.''

Patrick smiled. ``She's a police officer.''

So is Darren Essen, 34, who joined the force four years ago and is assigned to the Fifth District. He patrols at night, driving a Ford LTD with two fist-sized chunks missing from the padded steering wheel and 68,000 miles on the odometer.

A recent evening found him on Ridge Avenue, or ``the Ridge,'' as it's known. It flowed past in a series of neon streaks and flashing reflections on big plate-glass windows. Traffic was heavy.

The sidewalks were dotted with people - a young mother with a chubby-armed infant stuffed in a stroller, a teen straddling a silver bike and talking to two buddies sitting on a step, an elderly lady walking to her rowhouse from the Acme. Essen nodded at them as the cruiser streamed past.

``This area is no different than any other part of the city,'' said Essen. ``We have the same types of crime, except that we have fewer crimes.''

The shift was quiet in Roxborough that night, with Essen suggesting to a guy crawling under his BMW and fiddling with its loose muffler that he move it before another vehicle came around the corner and smacked him. The motorist complied, reluctantly.

Essen stopped by a convenience store, which had been robbed recently, to check with the owners and get some coffee.

Then the Ford cruised through some of upper Roxborough's pricier neighborhoods, where homes stood big and quiet and surrounded by tall pines.

Most of the action is down the hill, in Manayunk, where the district's lone 1997 homicide, the result of a squabble among friends, occurred in June. It's also where most of the routine crimes happen - car break-ins, car thefts.

Later that night, Essen and six other officers surrounded and arrested a 29-year-old Manayunk man suspected of breaking into a Jeep Grand Cherokee parked on Cresson Street. He had a stolen cell phone in one pocket and brass knuckles in the other.

Essen and his colleagues watched in quiet satisfaction as a police van, its diesel engine grumbling in the dark, took the suspect away.

A few moments later, Essen was patrolling again, this time on Manayunk's Main Street, and feeling pretty good about the quality of life in his small part of the city.

``We have to keep a presence here,'' said Essen. ``That's a big part of our enforcement.''

So is watching out for your neighbor, said Joann Prior. She's a Philly police officer on temporary disability - she hurt her back during an arrest almost two years ago and is anxious to get back to work - who is head of the town watch at her Roxborough apartment complex. Her husband. Richard, also a Philadelphia police officer, helps.

``People feel so safe here that they leave phones on car seats, change in open ashtrays,'' said Joann Prior, 42. ``It feels like the suburbs.''

Even its problems have that suburban feel: A police officer on patrol recently responded to a suspected domestic disturbance on a normally quiet street. It turned out to be a boyfriend and girlfriend having an animated discussion outside her home. The officer suggested the boyfriend leave, and he did.

Case closed.