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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?

#311

Post by mistermann »

spodek wrote: post #296
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…

I recently passed day 1,300 of picking up at least one piece of trash per day. It's not my only civic contribution, but it's deeply rewarding. I've also switched from jogging to plogging. Some results: It's gotten me on TV a couple times. It's led to working with my city councilman, whose team recently started organizing group pickups. Someone considering a Senate run contacted me for advice on sustainability. I'm wo…

Any anecdotes from the drug dealer conversations you wouldn't mind sharing? They must have a bit of a unique take on things.

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

#312

Post by centimeter »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #271
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 explai…

Obviously severe social disequilibrium can also have an effect, but this is not relevant the vast majority of the time.

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

#314

Post by tha0xc »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #271
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 explai…

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

The demographic committing crimes is being released from jail in record numbers, because keeping violent offenders in jail is "racist".

Police forces being told to stand down, being reduced in force, being told not to police certain areas containing a certain demographic because it's "racist", etc.

Now the violent demographic feels emboldened and know they're not going the be brought to justice because law and order is "racist".

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

#315

Post by adrianN »

bpt3 wrote: post #122
kiliantics wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to the effects of car pollution on health, education, etc., car infrastructure is also a big driver of segregation in cities, which leads to a lot of the social problems that engender violence. So shifting infrastructure away from cars is really relevant.

> So shifting infrastructure away from cars is really relevant. Sorry, it's really not. No one murders another person because of policies that don't provide enough to support to public transportation.

I think we generally underestimate the importance of social mixing in our society. Groups are less likely to see other groups as enemies if they're neighbors and take the same train to work every day. Poor people are less likely to feel excluded from society if they have friends from the middle class than if their whole neighborhood is on welfare.

Walkable neighborhoods with good infrastructure where a mixture of all strata of society live are, in my opinion, quite important if you want to prevent problems. Carcentric city planning is directly opposed to that.

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

#316

Post by adrianN »

ninenines wrote: post #302

First of all Thank you for thinking about y/our community, Here are few thoughts, Mornings/evenings. Have yoga camps it need not be physical yoga, there are quite an extensive range of breathing exercises which can be done just be sitting Local ppl upgrading is important, (young ppl learn and leave) it's important to educate the existing community, Conduct bootcamps, there is incredible content online, get together,…

I think the people you're reaching through such activities are not the people you actually want to reach to improve your neighborhood, or the city as a whole.

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

#317

Post by Yan-solucracy »

Sorry, it's in french so you'll have to use deepl.com but here's a very simple method to help create a spiral of engagement in your neighborhood : https://solucracy.org/fr/la-methode by gathering the needs and desires of your neighbors and making them visible to the whole community.

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

#318

Post by QuantumYeti »

QuantumYeti wrote: post #294

Maybe not a popular opinion, but: Encourage your neighbors to call the police when things happen. Call them yourself, too. I lived in a bad neighborhood for about 20 years, and have had family living in the "same" bad neighborhood (about 10 blocks away), and the difference in crime is night and day. The main difference from what I can tell, is that nobody on my street called the cops, ever. If I didn't call, the cops…

I was kinda hoping this comment would spur some discussion (it was late though). My opinions in this regard aren't concrete. I guess it is kinda hard/pointless to argue against anecdotal evidence. If I were to rephrase everything in my post as a question, I guess it would be: "How would you deal with a mentally ill homeless man who breaks into vacant houses, sometimes sets them on fire, and starts building 'art' around the neighborhood that people view as vandalism?"

If that is too specific of a question, we live in different worlds. Which is fine. But OP'll probably live in a similar one soonish.

Another question I would ask, is who all is involved in this decision to move to an underprovided city? Is it just you, as the sole provider? As in, no family? How long are you willing to live there? People can, and do, live in these neighborhoods for decades at a time...

But: How willing/capable are the people you love of withstanding an attack? I don't mean an attack against you ideologically, I mean physically. Can you live the rest of your life in a normal way, after you've been told to lie down next to the vehicle being stolen, with the full knowledge that you are a point on that vehicle's path of escape? Knowing they could run you over in an instant, if they felt like it. Knowing that wasn't you that experienced that, but your daughter or son?

Are you still then okay with sacrificing your own interests, and your families, for the benefit of the city?

Edit: Agh, this just turned into more anecdotal stuff. Oh well, I guess don't have much else to add. Either way, good luck OP.

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

#319

Post by hamilyon2 »

refurb wrote: post #288
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few major urban areas with high cost of ownership and good alternative options aside, a car is a self-compounding step out of poverty to most poor people and their problem with them is one of cost. To tell these people that cars are their problem is tone deaf at best. They have a million bigger problems.

Exactly. When you're an educated, middle class white person, it's easy to say "ditch the car! just get a place near transit. makes it easy to ride downtown to your office job". What about the poor people who can't afford to live near transit? Or have jobs nowhere near transit? A car is often a requirement for them. And sure, maybe they can take a bus with a couple transfers, but then their commute goes from 45 mins t…

Clearly, millions of middle-class Japanese people get by perfectly without a car.

Eastern Europe and Russia is not as rich, of course, but too could be example of huge territory with millions of people living whole their lives without car ownership.

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

#320

Post by aaron695 »

kingsloi wrote: post #164
kingsloi wrote: post #99

I haven't officially "launched" it yet as I still have a lot more to do, but I've been working on a community website to track air quality & industry in my community, as I live in Gary, IN, nestled in the the middle of some mega polluters. My neighbours and I got sick 2 years ago from some foul smell in the air and we ended up buying a PurpleAir monitor, and then I just tried to track everything pollution-related I c…

I didn't read the post sorry, just the title. I didn't see it was related to crime, I thought you were asking generally speaking. I can't talk about decreasing crime as Gary has a pretty bad reputation for it, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a correlation between greenery (nature, trees, plants, flowers, etc) and crime, even if there wasn't any, I know being surrounded by nature is good for us/mental wellbeing.

You were right first time, they were just asking in general.

Your answer is one of better ones here. It's a good Micro that can lead to a Macro.

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