ShortLived wrote:elliott20 wrote:If you're going to quote wikipedia, you might want to finish reading the rest of the article first.
Otherwise, you might miss
informationthat also works against your point.
I looked at that too.
But I believe that the small things add up!
Let's face it... if the place looks and acts like a sewer, NOTHING WILL CHANGE MUCH!
And I'm not disputing that it doesn't help. But without some kind of true social shift behind it, cosmetic changes will be nothing but that, cosmetic.
I just don't think he deserves all the credit for cleaning up NYC. I personally feel that people are too quick to want to give him all the credit for cleaning up New York City, as if he was the one to initiated it.
This is not to say he had no contribution. I mean, the guy increased police presence and brought in commercial presence that brings up real estate value. All these things help, but I do not believe it has as strong of an effect as a lot of people would suggest. Baltimore took up a similiar strategy but was met with far less success, thanks to the city not actually improving upon the citizenry and instead just increased law enforcement. The end result is that the population that supplied the criminals simply moved their operation from one end of town to another and went underground. So, while it cleaned up the downtown inner harbor area,(making it into the quinessential tourist trap) the rest of the criminal element just shifted to other areas of the city.
Observing the similiar strategy but with very different outcome, I think his role was more help supporting the momentum that NYC had in it's improvements, as opposed to be solely responsible for it's change.
Again, not to say that his work was not valuable.
The two main things he did was the increased law enforcement and the increase commercial value of real estate.
The first one can help maintain the areas law enforcement rates, but the other does nothing other than drive the poor from area to another as the real estate outprices them. It fundamentally does not improve the quality of life for the poor citizenry who is supplying the criminal elements. That's why I personally believe in social outreach programs where education assistance is key. Programs like that can fundamentally change the very citizen population not by simply shifting them to some place else where they become somebody else's problem, but by changing them into a viable work force through giving them more opportunities have gainful employment.
by elliott20 on Thu May 17, 2007 6:09 pm 
