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What in the heck will knocking down buildings and replacing them with new buildings accomplish? How does that change bad character? How does that replace an absence of morality? How does that establish a proper philosophy of rational self interest? How does that imbue a value for life?
It doesn't. It can't. It hasn't. It won't.
Errr, you move "NEW" persons into a redeveloped area, hence the term "urban renewal", not merely build new housing for the current residents.
Newark's location means it *could* have vast potential as a bedroom community for persons looking to be close to Manhattan but want the room and ease of the burbs, however no one in their right mind would move there as things stand.
A change in education methods is a viable albeit long-term solution to ghettoism. This one size fits all public education system is failing the inner city.
Errr, you move "NEW" persons into a redeveloped area, hence the term "urban renewal", not merely build new housing for the current residents.
Newark's location means it *could* have vast potential as a bedroom community for persons looking to be close to Manhattan but want the room and ease of the burbs, however no one in their right mind would move there as things stand.
The former residents end up somewhere and just take the problems they had in Newark to wherever they end up.
A change in education methods is a viable albeit long-term solution to ghettoism. This one size fits all public education system is failing the inner city.
You mean one size fits none. And the failure is not limited to the inner city. It is everywhere. Parents would never let the government control what they feed their kids. But while they defend the inviolability of their kids stomachs, they relinquish all control of what is fed to their kids minds. It's an astonishing contradiction and an abject default on personal responsibility. Perhaps we need to institute Separation of School and State. This idea is explained quite logically and compellingly by C. Bradley Thompson, a professor of political science at Clemson University, in "Education in a Free Society", which can be found in the Winter edition of "The Objective Standard".
There is really no reason, and in fact, it goes quite against reason, to allow the State to have the responsibility of educating children. Any children. In any neighborhood.
Last edited by Marc Paolella; 12-26-2013 at 10:07 PM..
Errr, you move "NEW" persons into a redeveloped area, hence the term "urban renewal", not merely build new housing for the current residents.
Newark's location means it *could* have vast potential as a bedroom community for persons looking to be close to Manhattan but want the room and ease of the burbs, however no one in their right mind would move there as things stand.
At whose expense? And by violating whose private property rights? Eliminating crime should be centered around sequestering those who commit them, not punishing the innocent by stealing their properties, with funds stolen from non-residents.
We don't need any more urban renewal, which is just another failed utilitarian scheme where one set of victims is drained to encourage the growth of others, with the politicians and their minions skimming the action for their own immoral personal gains.
Errr, you move "NEW" persons into a redeveloped area, hence the term "urban renewal", not merely build new housing for the current residents.
Newark's location means it *could* have vast potential as a bedroom community for persons looking to be close to Manhattan but want the room and ease of the burbs, however no one in their right mind would move there as things stand.
Urban renewal is what led to many problems modern cities face today. It destroyed neighborhoods that could have been saved and turned them into public housing, freeways, faceless office buildings etc. That would just be more of the same for Newark.
Urban revitalization, though it may sound similar, focuses on reclaiming the existing streetscape and making it livable again.
You don't need to get rid of old residents and replace them with new ones to fix Newark. I've made this point before but no one seems to understand what I'm saying. Please someone tell me if I'm not being clear because whenever I say this people seem to think I am blindly defending Newark and ignoring all the crime, which is absolutely not what I'm saying. 100 murders obviously is a lot. In addition, there is far more crime in Newark than just murders. That being said, the total numbers don't tell you what each section of the city is like on a neighborhood to neighborhood basis. Go back and look at those articles about someone being killed in Newark. Where were they killed? South ward, South ward, West ward, South, West, West, South, South, South, West, South, South, Central, South West, South, South. Just because certain sections of the city live up to Newark's reputation does not mean that you can't start to revitalize other areas of the city, areas that have the potential to be reclaimed right now. This is in fact what is happening in downtown with a lot of the high profile projects like the Prudential building, Whole Foods, new apartments, restaurants on Halsey st., Teacher's Village, and the new Marriott hotel. As more projects open up they will do a couple of things for Newark.
1. They will activate the street. This means that they will give people a multitude of reasons to be out and about. Whether its for doing errands, going out to eat, seeing a concert or sporting event, walking between their apartment and work or school etc. With more people around, crime is less likely to happen. I've mentioned this book before but I need to say it again. I highly recommend anyone who is reading this, and is interested in Newark one way or the other, read the book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". It will tell you about the profound impact a lively streetscape can have on crime.
2. They will improve the city's tax base. Many of these projects have been criticized for getting tax credits. Contrary to popular belief, your money is not going to build these projects. They are simply being absolved of their responsibility to pay a certain percentage of their taxes. However, they are not being absolved of all their taxes. For Newark this will create a net financial benefit and with the extra money Newark can hire more cops or fix schools or do anything else on the long checklist they have.
One other thing I should mention. One or two or three revitalization projects will not solve anything. When I say the streetscape needs to be improved, I am talking about entire blocks. There needs to be intersections where people feel that they can walk down any block at that intersection and be safe. Why are people so convinced that Newark is getting better? Many of the projects I mentioned are concentrated in one area right between downtown and University Heights and they are transforming entire blocks at a time. These are two neighborhoods that do not experience crime on the same level as the rest of the city. By strengthening the bridge between these two neighborhoods and revitalizing the streetscape, Newark can create a hub for expanding revitalization efforts to the rest of the city. Stabilizing the center of Newark will have positive results for the entire city.
You don't need to get rid of old residents and replace them with new ones to fix Newark. I've made this point before but no one seems to understand what I'm saying.
Understand, just disagree. Until the thugs are either gone or just too old to commit much mayhem, you're going to continue to have problems.
Understand, just disagree. Until the thugs are either gone or just too old to commit much mayhem, you're going to continue to have problems.
Don't get me wrong. I can absolutely understand why people think this way but doing so ignores a huge fact. Every major city that has revitalized over the past few decades did so at the neighborhood level. They did not have to revitalize the entire city in one swoop. They didn't need to worry about getting the criminal element out of the worst parts of the city first. They just worked with neighborhoods that didn't have as much crime and expanded from there.
Cities revitalized by reversing the trend of bad urban planning. They got rid of many of the bad concepts I've been talking about and implemented the good ones I've mentioned. When I talk about a lively steetscape, it's not just some theoretical concept that only exists in academia. These ideals have been brought to reality in every major city in the U.S. that has revitalized. It works, and it works at a neighborhood level.
Now I'm sure this brings up some questions. First of all, I'm sure you'd like to point out that Newark is not physically large and that larger cities benefited from having a bigger buffer zone between the good and bad neighborhoods. It is a fair point but generally speaking criminal elements don't spill over into good neighborhoods anyway. Jersey City is even smaller than Newark and yet it is revitalizing on a neighborhood to neighborhood basis. There are certainly sections of Jersey City that are still very dangerous but that does not affect the waterfront or the Heights or the neighborhoods around Grove St. You can see revitalization in Jersey City expanding as we speak. Journal Square was once considered very bad but is now in the midst of a real estate boom. If you want an even more extreme example, look at New Brunswick. New Brunswick is only five square miles and it features some dangerous neighborhoods but despite its small size New Brunswick has managed to largely revitalize itself. The criminal elements in New Brunswick do not spillover into the college neighborhood or in downtown around George St. Right now there are major upscale apartment complexes opening just blocks away from what would be considered the sketchy areas of New Brunswick and they are having no trouble finding tenants. A city can still revitalize itself no matter how small it may be.
Secondly, I'm sure you're wondering, if we have already figured out how to fix cities, why has it not happened in Newark already? Well there are a few reasons for that. First of all, for decades, Newark was run by a political machine that kept the outside world separated from the city. The people that ran Newark were only interested in gaining and keeping power. They didn't care about fixing the city. Booker was the first step toward breaking that political machine. Second, there are some cities that are obviously worse off than others and Newark was much closer to Detroit than it was to New York. However, Newark still had a lot going for it that would work out in its favor in the long run, most notably a good transportation network. Many people are now starting to realize the good fundamentals Newark has in place and they are taking advantage of those to make the city better. It is going to take a long time. This isn't going to happen in the next year or two but it is happening. It is at a snail's pace right now but with the recent construction boom around Military Park and over at Teacher's Village, it is just starting to pick up speed.
What in the heck will knocking down buildings and replacing them with new buildings accomplish? How does that change bad character? How does that replace an absence of morality? How does that establish a proper philosophy of rational self interest? How does that imbue a value for life?
It doesn't. It can't. It hasn't. It won't.
This is true. You can knock down buildings, and push the element out of newark. But they will have to go somewhere. The solution starts with helping the people and changing the culture of those in severe poverty. There is no overnight solution. This takes years even decades, not months.
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