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is there no validity in those concerns? I mean, the projects was a thing. The problems that sprang up around high-rises was certainly a thing.

kevinburke 9y ago
Statistically, increasing the number of people in an area will increase the amount of crime, the same way increasing the number of people will increase the traffic or the water usage or the electricity usage. Most people also overestimate the costs of crime by a factor of about 15; see http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9018.html http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9018.html for more information. It's too simplistic to just consider that. It may be a valid concern but it's also valid to consider the rights of the person or entity that owns the land to build what they want on it, and the consequence of underbuilding and the subsequent effect on real wages. If you want to do it properly you'd want to consider the increase in crime from a marginal resident added to area X, vs. the increase in crime from wherever they would live if you didn't build more housing in area X. Not to mention the effect on crime from perpetual underbuilding and the subsequent decline in most folks' real wages...
kasey_junk 9y ago
It's largely a myth that high rise projects were an experiment that went poorly. At the time that they were built, most of the high rise public housing projects were argued against by public housing advocates. Public high rise projects were a cynical racist tool of large political machines to segregate voter basis and solidify biased voting blocs. The earlier public housing experiments were more about integrated mixed income housing, which were very successful. There are lots of examples of this model that are successful but modern versions get voted down due to the specter of the Robert Taylor homes. One of my favorite books about this subject is "Blueprint for Disaster" by Hunt.
dionidium 9y ago
It's pretty simplistic to suggest that the projects caused crime and social problems. A good first step toward understanding the broader cultural context is The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth

kevinburke 9y ago

Statistically, increasing the number of people in an area will increase the amount of crime, the same way increasing the number of people will increase the traffic or the water usage or the electricity usage. Most people also overestimate the costs of crime by a factor of about 15; see http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9018.html http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9018.html for more information. It's too simplistic to just consider that. It may be a valid concern but it's also valid to consider the rights of the person or entity that owns the land to build what they want on it, and the consequence of underbuilding and the subsequent effect on real wages. If you want to do it properly you'd want to consider the increase in crime from a marginal resident added to area X, vs. the increase in crime from wherever they would live if you didn't build more housing in area X. Not to mention the effect on crime from perpetual underbuilding and the subsequent decline in most folks' real wages...

kasey_junk 9y ago

It's largely a myth that high rise projects were an experiment that went poorly. At the time that they were built, most of the high rise public housing projects were argued against by public housing advocates. Public high rise projects were a cynical racist tool of large political machines to segregate voter basis and solidify biased voting blocs. The earlier public housing experiments were more about integrated mixed income housing, which were very successful. There are lots of examples of this model that are successful but modern versions get voted down due to the specter of the Robert Taylor homes. One of my favorite books about this subject is "Blueprint for Disaster" by Hunt.

dionidium 9y ago

It's pretty simplistic to suggest that the projects caused crime and social problems. A good first step toward understanding the broader cultural context is The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth