John MacDonald: Fixing up vacant lots could reduce crime in St. Louis
Pictured Above: John MacDonald
Date Posted: December 26, 2019
Posted In: Discussion, Ideas, Regionalism,
Editor’s Note: John MacDonald is a professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the Manhattan Institute report “Cleaning Up Vacant Lots Can Curb Urban Crime.”
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Crime and place are tightly coupled. Just 5% of St. Louis city blocks account for over half of all reported violent crime. Many large cities see similar patterns, a fact that criminologists refer to as the “law of crime concentration.” When we think about crime, we should really think about place — and how seemingly small changes in these high-crime blocks can improve safety and quality of life for residents.
Abandoned homes and vacant lots are common in high-crime city blocks. Empty homes foster crime by providing hideouts for criminal activities, such as drug dens. But beyond their four walls, they also spread fear, discouraging residents from walking down the street, socializing with neighbors — and emboldening criminals with the sense that the streets are theirs to control. This can spread from block-to-block, as disorder fosters the spread of fear.
John MacDonald
Economic development strategies have limited effects on crime and poverty, especially if they aim to simultaneously preserve neighborhoods for existing residents. A growing body of scientific evidence, however, suggests that cities can reduce crime substantially by remediating vacant lots and abandoned homes on high-crime city blocks.
Earlier this year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey invested in a pilot program to take just this approach to St. Louis. His new nonprofit, the St. Louis Blight Authority, is working alongside the mayor’s office to tackle blighted and vacant land across St. Louis. Research suggests that this investment could pay substantial dividends in the form of decreased crime in St. Louis if the pilot program is expanded to the highest crime blocks in the city.