Oh Good lord! What a travesty! I am sure that someone had their rights violated by the camera. How terrible. I am also sure someone (or many) will complain about this and, quite likely, they do not even live in the neighborhood. And, even more likely, they would not want this kind of thuggery to happen to their loved one's.

Just wait until next year when dozens of apartment units are empty all at once due the F & M's new dorm on Harrisburg pike. As landlords rush to fill their properties with any warm bodies that might be able to pay the rent I won't be surprised to see crime incidents double or triple in that neighborhood.

I know Fry comes from U. Penn. I know U. Penn and F&M are different animals, but while Fry was at Penn all the university did was expand. It seems Fry has taken what he learned at U. Penn and developed a plan for F&M growth as we see expansion on all fronts at the college.

I think pulling students from the neighborhood is a calculated move by Fry to increase the overall student body by at least 25% or more as in a couple years F&M will lift the ban of students living in the surrounding neighborhood especially if he can use neighborhood "crime" as a reason to reestablish non university sponsored student housing.

Besides his support for the LCCC, I think Fry is exactly what Lancaster needs. He has been a major driving force in the northwest and knows how to get things done.

Only if he would run for mayor in the future!!!! I know it won't pay as much as F&M and he'll get a lot more crap, but perhaps it would be satisfying for him to turn Lancaster City into a gem as he has the talent and skills to enable such a transformation.

This is because of the City's attempt to get PRIVATE funding to pay for as much as possible. If the City were to pay for the cameras' installation and upkeep, it would either result in a tax increase, or cuts in other services. How much of an outcry against the cameras would there be if they caused a tax increase?

The City anticipates this, and plans incentives for property owners to convert row houses that contain apartments BACK into single-family residences, to be sold at market rates. The idea is to reduce the very issues you are talking about, since owner-occupied dwellings make a far more stable neighborhood.

I've heard both of these issues discussed at City Council and committee meetings.

The thought that owner-occupied properties effect on neighborhood crime and decay has no basis. First time home buyers with little or no down payments make for high turnover and sheriff sale properties. And it's far easier to get rid of a bad tenant than a bad homeowner.
Furthermore investors are very reluctant to sell their properties due to capital gains taxes and transaction costs. Rather than have units sit vacant until properties are sold, landlords will fill them with marginal tenants, especially if the properties are for sale.
The new dorm has much less to do with the benefit of F & M and the neighborhood than with rewarding buddies and foreign investors (Singapore) with a guaranteed return investment. That's ok, that's business in America, but let's not try to dress it up as some great improvement for Lancaster, when it will probably be the start of decline in one of the city's better sections.