Safety: From the Flophouse to the Penthouse? A few months ago, Franklin made the news as the location of the Aaron Hernandez flophouse. More recently, we made the news as Neighborhood SCOUTs #1 safest city in the USA. I have to say, I prefer the second headline...(!) How were the safest cities calculated? The formula is pretty simple: Given a city with a population over 25,000, they calculated the total number of violent and property crimes per 1,000 residents. And although several other MA cities made the top 100, Franklin came out on top of the list. Why? What makes Franklin safer? Not surprisingly, there are a LOT of ideas about what makes a city safe or safer. The closest thing to a general consensus is some combination of business, law enforcement, residents, and community leaders cooperating for the common good. How does this apply to Franklin? Does the Benjamin Franklin Charter School, which teaches character education, help? Or the other middle schools in town, which have similar programs? What role does our police department play? (Thank your police officers-they make your world a better place.) How about town officials and their decisions? We think its all of the above, and then some. The character of a town is comprised of all its various citizens and groups. What makes Franklin safe, but also friendly and pleasant, are groups like the Franklin Downtown Partnership, Franklin Democratic Town Committee, Franklin Food Pantry, Franklin Bellingham Rail Trail Committee, and Sons of Italy. Faith-based organizations like Temple Etz-Chaim, the First Unitarian Universalist Church, and Franklin Hadassah. The parent groups from schools like Jefferson, Oak Street, and Kennedy. And great community-minded local businesses like The Cake Bar, Daddario Hardware, Berry Insurance, and Whole Foods Bellingham, among many, many others. Were proud to have been able to collaborate with these groups, and proud of the character of our community.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 19:09:38 +0000
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