Deteriorating Neighborhoods

Deteriorating Neighborhoods

          Unattended properties in low income neighborhoods become fair game for anyone looking for a place to stay. Vandalism starts, trash accumulates, windows are broken and never repaired. As we mentioned in class, the community begins to deteriorate. Unfortunately, mischievous behavior is costly for the entire neighborhood as a whole. One abandoned, vandalized, and torn down house in a short period of time turns into two, three, and four vandalized and torn down houses. Businesses will no longer be successful and in return will be forced to close down. A neighborhood without businesses means a town with no tourism or money flow. Unattended neighborhoods lead to the breakdown of communities. As we saw in the video of the Robert Taylor Homes, they once were neighborhoods of families who cared for their home and community, looked out for each other's children, and brought immediate attention to negative behavior in the neighborhood. When a piece of property is abandoned, inhabitants of the neighborhood stop caring, trash piles up, and the windows are smashed; the neighborhood crumbles. Families will start to move out, wanderers will start to move in. Litter will accumulate, people will start drinking on the streets and panhandlers will soon start to migrate towards these areas. Areas where there once were happy families , low crime rates and no violence will start to be contaminated with disarray. The neighborhood has been left to crumble. Sampson talks about structural disorder which he describes as, "typically refer to graffiti on buildings, abandoned cars, garbage in the streets, and the proverbial broken window" (Sampson p. 121).

        Sampson also mentions another great point, " 'incivilities' such as graffiti, smashed windows, and drug vials in the streets are evidence of either crimes themselves or ordinance violations; meaning that in one sense the broken windows theory is saying that crime causes crime" (Sampson p. 126). Which, like we talked in class can happen. An abandoned neighborhood is more prone to suffer from crime and negligence. It will attract a different group of people, people who are not looking to benefit the community . They are looking to be benefited from what is left of the community. As we saw in the video of the Robert Taylor Homes where individuals would stay in abandoned buildings and sleep on mattresses that were left behind. It is hard to change neighborhoods like these. Low income, torn down neighborhoods lack attention and support from the government and are continuously disrespected by those who inhibit them. Loitering, vandalizing and tearing down a neighborhood that is already suffering will bring nothing but chaos. Frenzy will occur and it will take a lot of time and effort to try to rebuild what has been frazzled and abandoned.   

 

“Broken Window Theory: Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or even break into cars.”

― James Q. Wilson

Video:

https://youtu.be/1l44rjiRako

Article:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-morrison-kelling-20150107-column.html