As mentioned... but with an additonal...
Click here: Scholar sees reasons for hope on future of U.S. cities - baltimoresun.com
I have mentioned this very interesting devlopement but neglected an important factor, the most important one: Crime.
Immigration and the lure of education are indeed imprtant, as mentioned in earlier post.
New jobs are a powerful inducement to live in a center city.
But as pointed out in the linked article, the key to puzzle is crime.
Sudents will avoid (if they can) schools with rife with rape, robbery and theft. Immigrants, too. They will move to the lower-priced inner-suburbs. Same too for just plain folks.
My father ws mugged twice in NYNY. A child of mine was mugged in NYNY and WashDC. A former sister-in-law of mine, a lovely young woman, was murdered in Philadelphia. The crime has not been solved.
Much has changed. The seminal scholarly work in the field was by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling --- entitled Broken Windows.
The idea was that if you let small crimes go by --- breaking windows, jumping a turnstile etc ---
then larger crimes will invariably follow, as night follows day.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and many other Mayors of big cities --- white, black and Latino --- have followed this guidance. Their cities have been re-born.
It as good an example as I can think of the notin that: Ideas Have Consequnces, a central motto
here at The American Enterprise Institut.
Ben
I have mentioned this very interesting devlopement but neglected an important factor, the most important one: Crime.
Immigration and the lure of education are indeed imprtant, as mentioned in earlier post.
New jobs are a powerful inducement to live in a center city.
But as pointed out in the linked article, the key to puzzle is crime.
Sudents will avoid (if they can) schools with rife with rape, robbery and theft. Immigrants, too. They will move to the lower-priced inner-suburbs. Same too for just plain folks.
My father ws mugged twice in NYNY. A child of mine was mugged in NYNY and WashDC. A former sister-in-law of mine, a lovely young woman, was murdered in Philadelphia. The crime has not been solved.
Much has changed. The seminal scholarly work in the field was by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling --- entitled Broken Windows.
The idea was that if you let small crimes go by --- breaking windows, jumping a turnstile etc ---
then larger crimes will invariably follow, as night follows day.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and many other Mayors of big cities --- white, black and Latino --- have followed this guidance. Their cities have been re-born.
It as good an example as I can think of the notin that: Ideas Have Consequnces, a central motto
here at The American Enterprise Institut.
Ben
posted by Ben Wattenberg at 1:17 PM
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