Crime and Recession
If there is one subset of people who feel particularly taken advantage of during this crisis, it is those who bought homes in gentrifying/fringe areas, where they expected economic development to continue and the area to become increasingly safer. New York City offers many historical examples of this successful gentrification - those who held onto property during the 70s and 80s, much scarier times in the city, now find themselves in a safe, yuppified urban paradise. This was the ultimate housing promise - you buy in up-and-coming neighborhoods, property values increase, and the corner bodega is replaced with a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.
But as the NYTimes asks,
If the city’s economy sinks to depths not seen in decades, will crime return with a vengeance?
Neighborhoods are changing as homes are abandoned or foreclosed on, he said. More young people are on the streets. There are more Fire Department calls as people steal copper plumbing from empty houses, causing flooding.
“I see poverty as having a tremendous impact on both spirit and crime, and it is palpable,” he said in telephone interview after attending a national meeting of police chiefs in Washington on Wednesday on crime and the economy.
Naturally, of course, the areas most immediately affected are those on the outskirts of development, communities that were struggling in good times to deal with crime and poor infrastructure.
This image from a recent NYTimes article shows where, in New York City, these foreclosures are taking place. Those familiar with the NYC will recognize the hotspots on the map being those areas that, only a few years before, had the best deals in real estate, the buy-low-and-wait-for-gentrification promise.
New York City Foreclosures
Source: NYTimes
My take:
Continued economic development is not guaranteed, although we’ve taken it to be a foregone conclusion during the past two decades. The neglect of the education system in these ‘fringe’ areas is astounding, and it is therefore no surprise that these are the first impacted by an economic downturn. Education is one of our most powerful tools to fight poverty, crime, and financial mismanagement.
