It’s not uncommon for Bearcats living off-campus to gripe about the prevalence of crime within the city, particularly on Binghamton’s West Side, where many students reside. But current efforts to secure a major city-wide crime prevention grant may help put an end to concerns shared by students and residents alike.

The City of Binghamton’s Department of Criminal Justice is seeking to secure a grant that will direct increased funding at specific “Weed and Seed” sites: neighborhood zones, such as the West Side, that have particularly high crime rates.

According to Tarik Abdelazim, Executive Assistant to Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan, “If the Weed and Seed site proposal is officially recognized, we could qualify for up to $1 million in crime prevention and neighborhood revitalization funds over the next five years, an award that would make a substantial difference in areas of dense student housing.”

Binghamton’s disproportionate increase in crime — particularly drug-related activity — has already led the District Attorney’s office in Syracuse to give the grant application the necessary stamp of approval. The next step requires a comprehensive analysis of residents’ concerns about the neighborhood, as well as an organized plan for how to address these concerns.

“Neighbors themselves have to be partners in crime prevention,” Abdelazim said, adding that “the grounding principle of the Weed and Seed strategy is collaboration.”

In an effort to promote such collaboration, a major door-to-door survey, geared toward understanding residents’ perceptions of neighborhood problems, has been organized for this weekend. However, the city needs more than just answers — it also needs volunteers, including BU students, to help conduct the survey. In a recent letter to residents and community leaders, Mayor Ryan asked for assistance in volunteer recruitment, citing an “urgent call to action … to help with this grassroots [initiative] … This is an opportunity for us all, working together, to make a dramatic difference in the years to come.”

The difference that such a grant can make has already been demonstrated by the decrease in crime in the center-city area, which has had its own Weed and Seed site for over four years. According to Abdelazim, a second grant will help to crack down on crime that has started to emerge just west of the center-city site.

And senior Alex Rosenthal — Off Campus College Council president and the only BU student sitting on the proposed Weed and Seed site steering committee — explained that “the center-city Weed and Seed program was highly successful … addressing this second area will cut down on current as well as future crime, [increasing] the safety of students that live on the West and North sides.” He added that, by helping to conduct the door-to-door survey, students will have the opportunity to “realize the attitudes of those residents around them, and to help those around them to realize student viewpoints,” potentially improving the city’s notoriously poor town-gown relations.

If the proposal for a second Weed and Seed grant is recognized, neighborhood revitalization efforts will focus largely on reducing drug-related activity. But crime prevention will also attempt to address concerns that affect students more directly — for example, reducing the number of student houses that are broken into during extended University breaks, an occurrence that Binghamton Police Chief Steven Tronovitch described as “not unusual.”

Efforts to recruit volunteers to help conduct the survey are being coordinated alongside a more general effort to encourage city residents to participate in national Make A Difference Day this Saturday, Oct. 28. Last year’s Make a Difference Day set a national record, with 3 million volunteers donating their time to benefit an estimated 28 million people.

Binghamton’s own volunteer efforts this year are being coordinated under a “Clean and Green” theme, which will focus on cleaning main streets, planting and refurbishing gardens, helping flood victims to repair their homes before the winter season and conducting the door-to-door survey. Abdelazim encouraged all BU students to come down and lend a hand, adding that “participation and partnerships are the core democratic principles of this administration, and Make A Difference Day is just another opportunity for residents and students to improve our community.”

For more information about planned Make a Difference Day projects, check out www.cityofbinghamton.com/news/viewarticle.asp?a=1639. Those interested in reserving their spots as volunteers should contact Jerrine Wyman at (607) 372-8473 or Daphne Gathers at (607) 772-7003 Ext. 164.