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Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

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Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#271

Post by rufus_foreman »

centimeter wrote: post #151

Violent crime rates are almost 100% predicted by demographic factors that you can’t control (except at the margins, e.g. by evicting problematic demographics or by voting for immigration laws that favor beneficial demographics).

This is from a Council on Criminal Justice report from September that looked at crime rates in 27 US cities:

"Homicides and aggravated assaults rose beginning in late May and June 2020. Homicide rates between June and August of 2020 increased by 53% over the same period in 2019, and aggravated assaults went up by 14%—and both increases were statistically significant."

What demographic changes from 2019 to 2020 explain an over 50% increase in homicide rates?

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#272

Post by refurb »

troughway wrote: post #114

I like how some comments are painting a rise in wealth in these areas as somehow bad, but are hiding it behind the term “gentrification” and doing cartwheels to make sure the areas stay in poverty but somehow better than before. I’ll leave the comment at that, it’s amusing enough.

It is truly amazing to see good painted as bad. Rather than anecdotal stories the research shows that it has a net positive benefit to residents.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/study-gentrification...

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#274

Post by throwaway0a5e »

rv-de wrote: post #267
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking out the bylaw book and getting the police on speed dial is fundamentally the wrong way to deal with visible poverty. A litany of $20-$200 fines is a net negative to the neighborhood no matter how you distribute them.

I refer to "antisocial behavior" - not "poverty".

Arguably that has worse connotations but if you think it's better then whatever.

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#276

Post by HPsquared »

tedsanders wrote: post #132
Retric wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this in the most objective way possible. The risk with urban improvement is making the area more desirable eventually prices people out of the community. So, the real question is do you help the land or current residents? When you own property it’s seriously worth considering local improvements for several reasons, but it’s also easy to confuse the two. Further, if most people in the community own property the…

I think your concern is valid but unfounded. This is fortunate - otherwise the way to help the poor would be to vandalize their neighborhoods, which is a strange conclusion. It's true that increasing quality of a neighborhood will increase its housing price. This will have disparate impact: (1) it will help people who enjoy higher quality, but (2) it will hurt people who would prefer low quality and lower price. Howe…

In simple terms, improving a neighborhood increases the supply of good quality neighbourhoods and therefore reduces the price of good quality neighbourhoods (given that the demand is more or less constant).

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#277

Post by s1artibartfast »

HPsquared wrote: post #276
tedsanders wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your concern is valid but unfounded. This is fortunate - otherwise the way to help the poor would be to vandalize their neighborhoods, which is a strange conclusion. It's true that increasing quality of a neighborhood will increase its housing price. This will have disparate impact: (1) it will help people who enjoy higher quality, but (2) it will hurt people who would prefer low quality and lower price. Howe…

In simple terms, improving a neighborhood increases the supply of good quality neighbourhoods and therefore reduces the price of good quality neighbourhoods (given that the demand is more or less constant).

It also decreases the supply of bad neighborhoods. Given that demand is more or less constant, this increases the cost. If the price gap is sufficiently large between the two, prices go up during gentrification and the poor have to move to more expensive bad neighborhoods

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#278

Post by michaelmior »

grumpitron wrote: post #235
newacct583 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (2) it will hurt people who would prefer low quality and lower price. Uh... poverty isn't a preference. Sure, at the margins people can choose to spend the money they have on different things, but you're positing an equivalence here between things that aren't remotely equal. It's not like suburban professionals simply choose to spend their money on expensive housing and infrastructure where their inner city compatr…

To be fair, I know at least a handful of people who are not in poverty but seem to prefer low quality / low price options to those that are more expensive.

I would assume that the preference is not for low quality, but low price. That is, if better quality housing was available for the same price, I don't see why one wouldn't choose that option. But it is certainly true that some prefer to spend less of their budget on housing.

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#279

Post by wj »

dgski wrote: post #149

My own project ( https://plantogether.city ) hopes to help make cities better from an urban planning perspective by enabling two things: 1. Giving people a voice. People don't feel a sense of belonging because they a single individual amongst thousands/millions. Being able to discuss things directly on a map with other citizens is empowering. 2. Serving as a spatial knowledge base. Allows users to collaboratively cat…

I had an idea for a similar project last year. I thought it could perform a few functions:

1. Help compile a list of local issues

2. Empower people to help fix those issues (recognizing the different people can help out in different ways on the same issue)

3. Allow groups to highlight their contributions (e.g. local Libertarian party or Lions club or whoever can highlight X number of closed issues in 2020)

This direct action platform would certainly be susceptible to trolling and abuse but it also would directly provide the answers to the OP's question.

(One other hope would be that, if this caught on, maybe political campaigns could redirect some of their ad spend to helping fix these issues as that would allow them to say, "We did this".)

Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?

#280

Post by abeppu »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #186
bko wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you have a strong network of neighbors and a little bit of cash, you can ramp up investment by cleaning up dirty corners and getting the basic services that a neighborhood is missing. I don't think you need a network to begin cleaning up dirty corners. Just pick up garbage you see on the street when you walk around. It has an immediate impact, is easy and doesn't cost anything. Other people may see it and may…

Just put a Buddha statue on the corner! https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-19/how-buddhist-shrine-t...

I think maybe you're paying attention to the wrong part of that story. It's not the act of putting out the Buddha statue; it's the continuous care that a community of people put around the Buddha. The neighbor that plonked down the statue just contributed a statue. The community of Buddhists who adopted it, brought flowers, cleaned and improved the area are all doing exactly what the grandparent comment described.
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