08-07-2010, 08:39 PM
Quote:The family of a Puerto Rican friend of mine moved into one of those projects. I'd occasionally spend the night at their place. At first it was nice. Then came the graffiti on the walls, the petty vandalism, the stench of urine and vomit in the stairwells, the broken hall lights, the bags of garbage rotting in the halls, the broken elevators that took months to fix (in a ten or so story apartment complex), the toughs that started demanding 'protection'. There's a reason why 'the projects' has come to be synonymous with 'ghetto' or 'slums'.
Architectural choices appear to have a major impact on crime by encouraging or discouraging various types of community development. The big self-contained 10 story apartment blocks that characterize the projects (and not coincidentally, the USSR) are a major cause of deterioration. They prevent foot traffic, make policing very difficult, and encourage insular, gang-friendly communities. They create badly enforced commons, or, in your terms, urine and vomit in the stairwells and broken elevators.
If the projects had been built differently, they might not have ended up so badly. I don't think they really understood that at the time. In retrospect, however, the pattern seems clear.
-Jester