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Um, have you ever actually DONE that? much easier said than done. Believe me - I'm with ya. I think it's up to the citizens of every neighborhood to stand up and rally against crime, keep up their property, and maintain the quality of their streets. However, that doesn't always happen.
It's a combination of simple economics and human nature. Ask yourself, why would anyone live in a rowhome with bars on the windows and risk getting mugged every time you walk to the grocery store, garbage littering the streets, etc. if they could afford to live in a nice, quiet, safe neighborhood.
The fact that you would compare scranton to newark implies that you've never been anywhere near newark.
Tell you what, take a drive on the garden state parkway from exits 142-150 this sunday. You'll be in shore traffic so you'll be going nice & slow. Even peering over a divided highway, nice & safe from your car, you'll see what i'm talking about.
Better yet - get off rt 78 at exit 49 or so and take springfield ave east through vauxhall, maplewood, irvington, and right into downtown newark. You'll change your tune real quick...
What then is your "solution" for places like Newark or Camden besides avoiding them and throwing them away like yesterday's trash? Instead of allowing them to fester, should NJ raise taxes to afford to buy-out everyone still living in these two cities (which amounts to over 300,000 people) and then bulldoze everything to the ground to create greenspace or to start a new city fresh from the ground up? I just think it's an absolute waste of open space to have block after block of dwellings sitting boarded-up and rotting in cities in NJ while your landscape is ruined for more and more tract-housing on the suburban periphery.
New Jersey has some gorgeous, breathtaking scenery that should be appreciated and preserved---not destroyed for housing as more and more people leave the cities and abandon their former homes, which become home to vagrants and pigeons. Other than saying "Oops. Newark and Camden screwed up. Let's forget about them," what can we, as a society, collectively do to help these 300,000+ people? Just think of how much better NJ's tarnished image would be if these two cities were revitalized. Both cities already have stregic locations just minutes from either Center City Philly or Manhattan, so now all they need to do is start policing themselves more aggressively and the new reisdents will follow. Newark's population is already growing again, which is a positive sign, and I suspect Camden's might as well as Philadelphia's Center City continues to become cost-prohibitive to young professionals.
By the way, I'll be moving from my home in an upper-middle-class white suburb into the Lower Hill of Scranton, which is a more diverse and "sketchier" part of the Hill Section, so I WILL be putting my money where my mouth is (as soon as I have enough money to afford a home here after college). The Lower Hill might not be as sketchy as Camden or Newark, but it's not Nirvana either. I see the same potential in the revitalization of the Lower Hill as I see in NJ's cities as well. All it takes is hope, determination, and some sweat equity.
I believe you have the right idea. Look what happen to the counties surrounding Baltimore City. That poor uneducated trash from Baltimore City infested the county schools bringing gangs, drugs, etc. and the counties are fighting to meet AYP and crime has been out of this world. I am tired of working my behind off to secure what little I have to only have someone who refuses to work kill me for it. People say oh the death penalty is so cruel and not a deterent. What are we going to do? If you don't work than you don't eat. Jobs are advertised but people refuse to work they would rather rob, kill and steall and sell drugs. Lock them up.
And why should anyone subject their children to that.....
BINGO! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I won't sacrifice my children's education and safety to be part of a revitalization effort. I lived urban until I was 25, and while it wasn't Newark, I was fortunate to be able to afford a place in a school district infinitely better. I make no apologies for that.
It's truly a tragedy and it's my hope and wish every child had good parenting, a good education and a right to safety.
BINGO! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I won't sacrifice my children's education and safety to be part of a revitalization effort. I lived urban until I was 25, and while it wasn't Newark, I was fortunate to be able to afford a place in a school district infinitely better. I make no apologies for that.
It's truly a tragedy and it's my hope and wish every child had good parenting, a good education and a right to safety.
In addition many of the high school taxes collected in affluent areas are not staying in that school district..some of these monies are subsidizing districts in camden, newark etc
Poverty-stricken areas breed crime---don't be afraid to say it. This is why I advocate more middle-class and upper-middle-class whites moving back into the cities to balance the population out a bit and to show those who have turned to drugs as a means to support their families that there are other ways to turn themselves around and to become productive members of society. Crime in America's cities was much, much lower in the years before White Flight and urban sprawl, and there's a reason for it.
You are correct that moving middle and upper middle class families back into these areas will lower violent crime rates, but at the expense of the middle and upper middle class families. You will also be introducing an easy target for property and non-violent crime to replace the violent crime as a means of easy money for the criminal element. Those ill equipped to protect themselves from these criminal elements will become the support system for criminal rather than rehabilitating a neighborhood.
Unless the criminal element is replaced by these middle and upper-middle class families, and then you run into the "where do these poor people go to?" problem, you simply shift the economic value of various crimes. This makes the stats look good, but you still have victims.
As long as we have a sub-society that depends upon crime for their economic standard, we will have these problems. As someone pointed out earlier, some of these criminals are too lazy to work an honest job, but also many are unable to hold down a job, or are un-hireable for other various reasons. Not everyone is capable of becoming a contributing member of society.
We must determine how to deal with those persons before we can "take back" the neighborhoods. We have methods of making crime less desirable and less profitable for the borderline crooks and for the easy money crowd. But we have no means of preventing those more desperate and innovative career criminals that prey on the less capable members of our society.
In addition many of the high school taxes collected in affluent areas are not staying in that school district..some of these monies are subsidizing districts in camden, newark etc
how do you find this out? my tax bill consists of a county tax, a local tax, a "green space" tax, and the school tax. it doesn't say if any proportion of it goes to an abbott district, for instance. my school tax is 70% of my total bill.
I feel terrible about this crime. My son works in Newark. Yes, for those who care, we're white. He is a journalist at the Star Ledger. He takes the train in and doesn't venture too far from the office. He has told me that reporters have a very dim view of the Newark Police force. Crime is out of control and the cops as a team, as a force have no clue what to do. My son spends many hours a day listening to fellow reporters on the metro beat talking to Newark cops on the phone about breaking cases. They (cops) are (sadly) a sorry lot and outnumbered, no doubt as well by druggies and thugs. It would still be nice if there was a strong plan or a presence on the streets by the Newark cops. It's going to get much, much worse.
[quote=ScrantonWilkesBarre;1220552]This is why I advocate more middle-class and upper-middle-class whites moving back into the cities to balance QUOTE]
No thanks. My Irish ancestors worked their way out of urban poverty with no govt. assistance. They expected their children to go to school, stay in school and obey the laws or else.
The school bussing debacle of the '60s/'70s was the govt's attempt to force upon the public what you advocate. Both my ex-wife and wife were victims of that mistake (don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying you advocate govt. force).
People volunteering to use their lives and children as guinea pigs for social experimentation aint gonna happen. Not if they love their children.
how do you find this out? my tax bill consists of a county tax, a local tax, a "green space" tax, and the school tax. it doesn't say if any proportion of it goes to an abbott district, for instance. my school tax is 70% of my total bill.
More finger pointing from Scranton? What a surprise.
Scranton, get a real job and actually contribute to society by more than just posting thousands of times on an Internet forum. That might give you a little more insight as to why solving Newark's problems is a just a tad more difficult than solving the problems of some podunk town in the middle of nowhere in PA.
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Newark's population is already growing again, which is a positive sign, and I suspect Camden's might as well as Philadelphia's Center City continues to become cost-prohibitive to young professionals. 
