I don’t know if it’s a trend in the rental market nationally, or just something peculiar to Ypsilaniti, but at a neighborhood meeting last night, someone mentioned to me that the advertising for the Peninsular Place apartments stresses the fact that they have “panic alarm buttons in each bedroom.” I’m curious as to whether that has anything to do with the serial rapist that we had here in town not too long ago, or if it has more to do with the all too common occurance of date-rape on American college campuses. I suppose it’s also possible, however, that it’s just one more relatively low-cost amenity that property managers can tack on to differentiate themselves in the market. Fear, after all, as we all know, sells… Who knows, perhaps one day every home built in an up-scale subdivision will be built with a fully-outfitted “panic room.” (The panic room could be to this decade what the den was to the 70’s!)
[Peninsular Place, as you may already know, is the massive apartment complex which we Ypsilantians sacrificed our old, historic paper mill for. Some of us protested, but, in the end, our city leaders felt that we could afford to jettison a little history, so long as it would help suck the students out of downtown and across the proverbial tracks.]
12 Comments
It’s the latter reason. They were planned and advertised before the place was even built. I think they’re actually standard fare at all ‘Edwards Communites’ properties, and probably with other new apartment complexes.
I personally wonder how many false alarms there have been so far, I’ve heard of one or two but I think there would probably be more.
So what exactly happens when the button is pushed?
Does it just activate an audible alarm or does it also contact the police? Maybe it just sends a page to a sleepy Edwards security guard.
I believe that it just plays the song “Panic” by The Smiths.
I think that if I had a panic button, my finger would rarely leave it.
I’ll bet it’s a nice selling point to parents (whom probably are paying a good amount of the rent in that place)
So, uh, are there actual panic _alarms_ installed? Or just panic alarm _buttons_?
Meanwhile, of course a panic room will be like a den. What else are you going to do but watch a little tv or listen to the hi-fi while waiting for an intruder to leave?
(“Is that guy still out there? I guess maybe I should call somebody – just as soon as Law & Order is over.”)
“Bomp. Bomp.”
(For those of you who didn’t recognize it, that was the Law & Order sound effect.)
I like the idea of having a fully functional apartment within an apartment which functions as a PANIC ROOM.
And don’t forget the panic room inside the panic room, in case the first one is breached.
Where are they placing these panic buttons? AND what constitutes the panic necessary to push that button…wolves?
Having a child of my own, I can very much appreciate the appeal of such a feature. I, like every parent, would like to think that my child is in as safe an environment as possible. My sense, however, is that it’s just an illusion in this case. A panic button in the bedroom doesn’t help stop a rape from occurring in the living room. And a panic button in the bedroom doesn’t help if you’re robbed in the parking lot. Maybe there’s some marginal value, assuming the button is attached to something and works, but keeping your cell phone handy and well-charged is probably a safer bet. And, the ads focusing on the panic buttons strike me as just more of the same fear mongering that we see every day on Fox News. We have a fear-driven economy from SUVs on down.
Is this still the case? Do they still have panic buttons? Who comes when they’re pushed.
I’m just curious. I’m not planning any crimes.