Mayfair Town Watch continues moving forward

The still-developing Mayfair Town Watch will need members “from every age group” to be effective, the group’s president said at last night’s meeting.

Other town watch organizations “are made up of middle-aged guys,” President John Vearling told about a dozen members in the meeting room of the John M. Perzel Community Center. “We need that next generation to have our vision for town watch.”

Mayfair residents’ concerns about a popular franchised dance club continue.

Jamz (formerly WOW), a roller skating and dance night spot at Princeton Avenue between Brous Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, is a magnet for “undesirables” from other neighborhoods and a hotbed of violence, vandalism and other quality of life concerns, said Mayfair Town Watch President John Vearling.

But these problems regularly happen outside of Jamz after patrons leave and the club remains up to code, said Mayfair Civic Association President Joe De Felice, who was in attendance.

Members offered three clear suggestions about how their group could affect change: encouraging better lighting in the adjacent parking lot, requesting an earlier closing time and arriving en masse in town watch gear to dissuade any “negative behavior,” added Treasurer Shawn Hagerty.

The meeting was the second in a series of such get-togethers scheduled for successive Wednesdays all aimed at creating a viable town watch in a neighborhood that already has an active civic association, business association and community development corporation.

To do so, members should encourage their kids to get involved soliciting donations, developing support and, if they’re 18 or older, patrolling the neighborhood, said Scheduler Pete Smith, who, like Vearing, was sporting a Phillies jersey ahead of the team’s NLCS game against the Dodgers.

“That’s our future town watch,” Vearling said during the hour-long meeting.

The board addressed other ways it’s establishing the nascent neighborhood patrol, from launching a Web site, a Facebook page, a Meetup group, the idea for soliciting donations through a network of block captains and fundraising through ways like t-shirt sales.

“This is not easy,” Vearling said. “But this is how you do it.”

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal