Broken Windows Theory

I am a strong believer in the “Broken Windows” theory of neighborhoods. Rather than try to describe this theory myself, I am going to turn to one of my favorite books on neighborhood revitalization, Learning from Bryant Park by Andrew M. Manshel. “The article, “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” written by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling (March 1982, Atlantic Monthly) introduced the idea of “fixing broken windows.” ... The broken-windows theory, later adopted by the New York City Police Department under Commissioner William Bratton, employed the analogy of a deserted building to describe a process of growing public disorder. Wilson and Kelling argued that once a single window in an abandoned building appeared to be broken, all the other windows would rapidly be broken as well. Their idea was that quickly repairing the first damaged window, thus restoring the perception of order, would prevent the other windows from being trashed. In public safety, this meant that by paying attention to public disorder violations - public drinking, turnstile jumping, graffiti, petty thefts - a police department could get into the unprecedented, revolutionary business of preventing crime rather than solving (or merely documenting) criminal activity after it occurred.”

Even a casual visitor can perceive potential crime or quality of life issues. Is there one house on a block with pits chained in a circle around it? A house that is boarded up with significant trash issues? A burned out structure with a collapsing roof? One of my core beliefs in this project is that we will continue to have problems if we do not address these issues. To paraphrase The Real World Hattiesburg’s police department and code enforcement department need to stop being polite and start getting real.