A Walk on the South Side

Michael DeCrosta ’11, ’15G is hoping it’s the little things that will make a big difference on Bethlehem’s South Side.

With a $2,500 Lehigh grant, DeCrosta is hoping to improve walkability on the side streets that link the lower part of the Asa Packer campus to Third and Fourth streets and the South Bethlehem Greenway.  Those side streets, he said, are “a necessary component” to South Side’s revitalization. 

“There’s sort of this perception of the South Side as being unsafe or being dirty or being dangerous,” said DeCrosta, who conducted online surveys with students and focus groups to gauge views.  “That’s a really simplified view of what it is. In the big picture, the South Side is a really cool place.

“There are good restaurants, there’s a big arts culture, there are really cool small businesses,” he said. In addition to ArtsQuest, which provides art and educational programs, he pointed to the Greenway, a linear park built atop a Norfolk Southern right-of-way. “There are all of these great things that I feel students could be interacting with more that would make them even greater.”

In his conversations with students, DeCrosta tried to figure out why they had a poor opinion of the South Side, especially since there were many businesses they frequent. What kept coming up as issues were the side streets that connect Third and Fourth streets, including Adams and Webster. 

As a first step, DeCrosta and other students focused their attention on a section of Adams Street that students view as dark, dirty and sort of mysterious and where Lehigh has a storage warehouse that looms large on the block. Murals and better lighting are among their proposals.

In applying for the Lehigh grant, DeCrosta was guided by Breena Holland, associate professor of political science and a participating faculty member in Lehigh's Environmental Initiative, and Karen Beck Pooley, who also teaches courses at Lehigh through the Environmental Initiative. He also reached out to Dale Kochard, Lehigh’s assistant vice president of community and regional affairs, who helped him connect with key people on campus.

“Small impacts done in multiples can have a larger impact,” Kochard said. “The overall vibrancy of a commercial community is dependent on how many feet you can put on the ground.”

Lehigh also has partnered with Bethlehem to create the Community Ambassadors Program, with services that include daily removal of litter and graffiti from public areas and the maintenance of tree wells and flowers.

“There’s a lot happening on the South Side,” said Kochard. “A lot is in the works, both big and small.”

DeCrosta is hoping fellow Lehigh students will build on the momentum.

“Every sort of second that students feel uncomfortable sort of sticks with them and feeds into this perception that the South Side is this awful, dangerous, unsafe place,” DeCrosta said. “It also makes them less likely to go back in the future and that hurts small businesses, that hurts the student experience. That’s not good for anyone.”