PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Germantown gas station is pumping more than gas.
Management at the Speedway gas station along Chelten Avenue near Germantown Avenue is pumping opera music over loudspeakers as a form of security, designed to keep teens and passersby from loitering.
“It’s wonderful and different. That’s why it took me by surprise,” said Donna, who uses the gas station almost every week.
She says she sometimes feels unsafe there, because there’s always a group of school-age kids or young men hanging out. She’s not the only one who says large groups gather to socialize and often become rowdy.
“All there is … is all that riff raff and mess,” Donna said.
That’s where the opera music comes in, making it harder for loiterers to stay, encouraging them to move on.
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Donna said most of the people are just neighborhood members passing through, but once in a while it gets dangerous, and she’s glad they’re taking precautions.
“You never know,” she said. “You’ve just got to be careful at all times.”
And if it takes a little music to do it, as Donna says, “Why not?”
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Doc Lee, who lives just a block away from the Speedway, welcomes the opera music but doubts it will help.
“I don’t think it will,” he admits. “They will be having their plugs in their ears and still loiter.”
Lee wants the station management to get serious about safety.
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“What I would suggest they do is stop playing, and get a security guard around here,” said Lee.
Management wouldn’t comment, but an employee pointed to the cleared sidewalk and said, through the intercom, ”It’s only day two, and do you see anyone?”
Enough said.