...I haven't heard that line used in a long time, plus I was thinking about the "Officer Krupke" song from West Side Story last night, so I had to use it. But I do kind of believe it, to some extent.
In 2021 and 2022 I was a pro bono consultant working with the Chicago Central Area Committee and the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development for Lori Lightfoot's "Invest South|West" program, which identified 10 areas across the south and west sides where the city wanted to promote investment. I helped on three of those: Bronzeville, Englewood, and my old stomping ground, South Shore. The teams included people from the worlds of architecture, urban planning, design, law, and real estate. I've been appraising property all over the City of Chicago for 30+ years and am generally familiar with things like rents, housing prices, etc., but the deep dive into the complete demographic context was eye-opening. There are a whole lot of people with poor levels of income, education, transportation access, and places to buy groceries.
The planning solution is to make the built environment better, and this has been true for the better part of the last 100 years; the city beautiful, carefully designed vertical housing, parks and other open spaces, and so on. This has been reinforced in my mind by reading The Battle of Lincoln Park by Daniel Kay Hertz, an excellent contribution in a long history of such books going back to the classic by Arnold Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960.
Improving the built environment can only take us so far. we need to focus more on improving the people who are intended to live in our built environments, starting with much greater emphasis on rigorous childhood education. This will lead to a greater number of people with higher potential earning power and would reduce the motivation to commit crime. That motivation will never disappear from society, but it can be mitigated. The community policing strategies mentioned elsewhere in this thread, if they are designed and implements appropriately, can also have an impact.
There is no crime problem. Car jacking’s and car theft aren’t happening. The 5.56 casings we routinely find outside the Erie Cafe and in the park are fake.
It’s all good, 2020 never happened.
First, that's a really interesting article and appreciate you sharing. Was about to note that it doesn't feel that way, but then realized it's just because I live/work in and around DC.
Post Floyd/BLM should reveal some great policing data. The comparison between cities that shifted police resources to community service and stuck with that approach vs. those who took that approach and then reverted back vs. those who didn't change their policing approach would be interesting (assuming one can account for the variables).
Regardless, it is good news for the majority of the population.
The overall city response/competence has been really bad.
Favorably to the rest of the nation pre pandemic. Now it has the worst year over year murder rate climb nationally.
It doesn't seem like more of the same.
Not surprising as that Chinatown area is not fun anymore. I still go there but it’s a lot different than even 2010.
Local news, almost daily, has a business that is closing because it’s too expensive. And I think that may be a difference between now and when DC was truly dangerous. Now is not as dangerous, many places have gentrified, but the property crime makes it really expensive.
incompetent. That’s always been the case with the DC government. Nothing new
You feel it in many parts of the city. And property theft is pretty brazen right now.
Incompetence, yes, but you also feel people just don’t give a shit. I was in a CVS in NW DC few weeks ago - young kid in a hoodie just came in and threw stuff into his backpack and walked out while clerk watched. Retailers will start pulling out of the worst parts of the city (or start raising prices), with tears about food deserts and resource deprivations.
Apparently 2020-2022 had a significant increase, perhaps due to COVID. The charts s eem to show the 2023 numbers resemble 2019. Also in fairness crime rates 10-15 years ago were much higher thsn now.
The rise of gang robberies of stores is new and crrtainly affects our perception
They've seen. There was a lot of fear that the pandemic would set off a permanently higher crime rate.
I'm hoping the focus on crime can get us below the mid 2000s lows if the trend can keep on going into 2024.
Are we doing something right to mitigate the underlying causes or did ee get lucky
Just the craziness of life and unrest unwinding.
In a lot of big cities lead exposure in childhood for current 20 somethings is still declining. With that and a demographic drop-in young people we may just be in for a secular decline in crime
What will be interesting to compare is how cities that went harm reduction vs law and order fared. The wide range of crime responses will probably give material for PHD theses for a decade at least.