How New York Became Safe: The Full Story

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-15 21:43:27 | Updated at 2024-11-23 12:33:10 1 week ago

How New York Became Safe: The Full Story
City Journal ^ | 2009 | George L. Kelling

Posted on 11/15/2024 1:20:37 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Just 20 years ago, New York City was racked with crime: murders, burglaries, drug deals, car thefts, thefts from cars. (Remember the signs in car windows advising no radio?) Unlike many cities’ crime problems, New York’s were not limited to a few inner-city neighborhoods that could be avoided. Bryant Park, in the heart of midtown and adjacent to the New York Public Library, was an open-air drug market; Grand Central Terminal, a gigantic flophouse; the Port Authority Bus Terminal, “a grim gauntlet for bus passengers dodging beggars, drunks, thieves, and destitute drug addicts,” as the New York Times put it in 1992. In July 1985, the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City published a study showing widespread fear of theft and assault in downtown Brooklyn, Fordham Road in the Bronx, and Jamaica Center in Queens. Riders abandoned the subway in droves, fearing assault from lunatics and gangs.

New York’s drop in crime during the 1990s was correspondingly astonishing—indeed, “one of the most remarkable stories in the history of urban crime,” according to University of California law professor Franklin Zimring. While other cities experienced major declines, none was as steep as New York’s. Most of the criminologists’ explanations for it—the economy, changing drug-use patterns, demographic changes—have not withstood scrutiny. Readers of City Journal will be familiar with the stronger argument that the New York Police Department’s adoption of quality-of-life policing and of such accountability measures as Compstat was behind the city’s crime drop.

Yet that explanation isn’t the whole story. Learning the rest is more than an academic exercise, for if we can understand fully what happened in New York, we not only can adapt it to other cities but can ensure that Gotham’s crime gains aren’t lost in today’s cash-strapped environment...

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...

TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: diblasio; ericadams; giuliani; newyork; nyc

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* NOTE: article is from 2009, but lessons are still relevant for ALL major US cities!

To: CondoleezzaProtege

a grim gauntlet for bus passengers dodging beggars, drunks, thieves, and destitute drug addicts

2 posted on 11/15/2024 1:23:02 PM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s² )

To: CondoleezzaProtege

I’m not clicking over to read the whole article, but since the excerpt doesn’t give credit to Rudy G, then I wonder if the rest of the article does so.

3 posted on 11/15/2024 1:24:59 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Climate Change is Real. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.)

To: CondoleezzaProtege

escape from new york

4 posted on 11/15/2024 1:25:06 PM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)

To: Responsibility2nd

I’m not clicking over to read the whole article, but since the excerpt doesn’t give credit to Rudy G, then I wonder if the rest of the article does so.

It does. He has been on my mind lately after Trump won. I pray everything that's been taken from him for being so loyal to Trump these past few years will be restored. Including his health. :(

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Rudy G enforced the law... especially the small ones. When people see the law is enforced, they get in line and the citizenry feels safer.

Didn’t spend a lot on my analysis. How’d I do?

6 posted on 11/15/2024 1:32:08 PM PST by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)

7 posted on 11/15/2024 1:35:48 PM PST by PMAS (Vote with your wallets, there are 80 million of us - No China made, No Amazon)

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