Comments on: Do It Yourself Crimefighting

By: Luana

Luana — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:50:33 +0000

One thing, in further planning, steps must be taken to hobble the multifamily unit property owners on rent hikes. The only negative affect on those existing inhabitants is rent hikes due to the resulting rising prosperity. If your job is what it is, and you moved there because it was the best you could find for your budget, then when property values rise drastically due to cleanup, you won’t be able to pay for those hikes in rent. The neighborhood becomes a better place to rent and the demand causes rent increases and higher mortgages and taxes for new homeowners, especially in enclosed communities like an island. You have to prepare the tax incentives and whatever else works to prevent giant jumps. Give them a chance to have the improvements affect their psyche and improve their demeanor and performance at work so they have a chance at a raise. You have to prepare the tax incentives for property owners to slowly make increases, and whatever else works to prevent giant jumps.

By: wordnerd

wordnerd — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:12:09 +0000

When it comes to stimulating the intellect, maybe greenery is the visual equivalent of Mozart.

By: ruth gutmann

ruth gutmann — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:33:23 +0000

I don’t know how many foreclosures or abandoned properties there are in Oakland currently, but whatever the number, the effects on the neighborhood are awful according to the reports one hears (by NPR, a.o.). Some towns are trying to buy those buildings, fix them up and rent them out — once the owner or lender is known.

So people who are determined to remedy blight have my admiration.

By: dc

dc — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:18:30 +0000

m: Interesting to hear that you could actually notice a difference in student behavior depending on the tidiness of the classroom. I think that there’s a similar effect in retail stores too: customers behave more respectfully in clean, well-kept stores (and tend to think the merchandise is worth more too). People unconsciously pick up a lot of signals from our environment, and without realizing it, we’ll behave differently based on those subtle perceptions. It’s kind of spooky.

By: m

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:07:01 +0000

I’ve seen the same effect firshand in the classroom. Graffiti strewn disorganized room=students act out more. Clean, organized, scrubbed clean room=students better behaved. Of course there are/could be other factors at play, but I think regardless of the other elements, that one alone does make a difference.

By: dc

dc — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:33:07 +0000

We Fight Blight: Your efforts in North Oakland/South Berkeley are heroic. Keep it up! Following up on my point about local government being unable or unwilling to provide basic services, I was not very surprised yesterday to see that due to budget constraints, the City of Oakland no longer has litter receptacles in some city parks, and can't perform other basic maintenance in a timely manner. Allowing city parks to become litter-filled and broken-down seems like a good way to cause parents and children to steer clear of them, and to encourage drug dealers to set up shop there.

By: We Fight Blight

We Fight Blight — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:45:19 +0000

Thanks for the great posting. We are very much interested in the connection between blight and crime. Based on our review of various studies, we believe that improving the physical and aesthetic characteristics of our communities helps to send an important message to criminals that a community does care and that people are watching out. If people care and are watching out, then criminals are less likely to feel that they have an unconstrained ability to commit crimes. This subtle deterrent is important in taking back out neighborhorhoods. I always find it interesting when people want to debunk the broken window theory citing that there is no causal relationship to blight and crime, seemingly arguing that it’s okay to keep neighborhorhoods in a state of blight. At the least, a focus on blight will help to improve our communities and make theme more enjoyable for residents. Apart from crime, blight exerts a tremendous cost on our communities. See http://wefightblight.blogspot.com/2008/12/significant-costs-of-blight.html. We are under no illusion that eliminating blight will eliminate crime, it is but one piece of the puzzle that must be addressed to make our communities safer.

By: dc

dc — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:24:30 +0000

wordnerd: I’m sure that kind of thing has been studied. When I was in high school, they renovated our science wing, and the “new” classrooms were painted in pretty ugly pastel colors. I remember being told by a teacher that the school had chosen specific colors that had been shown to be conducive to learning. I don’t know if they were right, but apparently school districts do think about these things.

I’ve read about research showing that the presence of trees in inner city environments is strongly correlated with lower crime and violence (and improved mental health, and stronger communities, and…):

“In a 2001 study in one Chicago public housing development, there were dramatically fewer occurrences of crime against both people and property in apartment buildings surrounded by trees and greenery than in nearby identical apartments that were surrounded by barren land. In fact, compared with buildings that had little or no vegetation, buildings with high levels of greenery had 48 percent fewer property crimes and 56 percent fewer violent crimes. Even modest amounts of greenery were associated with lower crime rates. The greener the surroundings, the fewer the number of crimes that occurred.

“Greenery lowers crime through several mechanisms. First, greenery helps people to relax and renew, reducing aggression. Second, green spaces bring people together outdoors, increasing surveillance and discouraging criminals. Relatedly, the green and groomed appearance of an apartment building is a cue to criminals that owners and residents care about a property and watch over it and each other.”

http://www.lhhl.uiuc.edu/crime.htm

By: wordnerd

wordnerd — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:10:08 +0000

Are there generalizations to this? Suppose ghetto schools were fixed up to look like pastoral campuses…