Middle school youth worked with neighborhood adults to clean up and transform three adjacent vacant (and uncared for) lots into a park, the Rosa Parks Peace Park, located at the corner of Fleming Rd and De Freest St – near Flint Park Lake on the NW side. We have recently completed a study of the effects of a Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) project in another high crime area of Flint. The Land Bank’s efforts to improve and maintain vacant properties are a critical element of our efforts to reduce urban blight and to prevent violent crime in this location. This neighborhood experiences high rates of violent crime despite the absence of natural gathering places for teens and young adults, such as high schools or night clubs, where violence is likely. My colleagues at the University of Michigan and I are currently working with the Land Bank and other community partners to prevent violent crime in one neighborhood of Flint where property vacancy rates are closed to 50%. Moreover, as residents perceive a rise in crime, they modify their behavior by avoiding social interactions near the untended property or by moving out of the neighborhood, further reducing informal social controls and fostering more crime. Vacant properties are also more likely to be vandalized or burned to the ground, and theft from vacant properties is less likely to be reported. Vacant buildings can become havens for trash, stray animals, squatters, and criminals.
#URBAN BLIGHT WINDOWS#
This is often referred to as the Broken Windows Theory, introduced by James Wilson and George Kelling in the early 1980s.īroken Windows theory posits that untended property (symbolized by a single broken window) is a visual cue for diminished social control and attracts additional vandalism, loitering, and other criminal acts.
![urban blight urban blight](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sFtfZKTXkTw/TLqGEk1fdvI/AAAAAAAAAB4/JFXXXNH938s/s1600/Urban+Decay+Hdr.jpg)
Urban blight and decay are now widely recognized as invitations to violent and property crimes.
![urban blight urban blight](https://static1.sitejabber.com/img/urls/727162/picture_162554.1584689041.jpg)
A neighborhood’s physical conditions and the social dynamics are among the primary reasons why crime occurs in very specific neighborhoods one generation after another. His remarks are posted below:īoth violent crime and property crimes are greatly influenced by causal factors in the physical and social environment. Can programs like the Genesee County Land Bank’s Clean and Green Program prevent crime? Tom Reischl, PhD, Evaluation Director at MI-YVPC and the Prevention Research Center of Michigan, recently spoke to the Genesee County Board o f Commissioners in support of funding for the Land Bank’s property maintenance programs.