I'd love to see you write more about this topic, especially solutions. I've lived in New York City since 1998 and the increased disorder feels palpable to me (but sometimes I wonder if I am just getting old and cranky?) Culture wars are erupting right in my own neighborhood (Jackson Heights) about how to address it, but the solutions--even from that political leaders I admire--don't seem like the right ones.
Telling about CityLab (maybe less so Utopian Hours... but I could just be romanticizing Europe). It's an elephant in the room that cities, at least North American cities, have fundamentally become worse, less appealing places to live in the last four years... especially West Coast cities, and, ahem, my long-term home of Seattle (ding ding ding). Urbanists will die on the hill of living in dense, walkable, transit-rich places regardless of street-level conditions. Normies often don't really care that much about the built environment, at least not so explicitly, especially if they are raising kids.
While it is absolutely fair to distinguish disorder from crime, especially w/r/t homeless encampments the link is very real:
Encampments account for a disproportionate amount of gun violence in Seattle this decade. It's one reason when an encampment sprang up four blocks away en route to my kid's preschool, I was zealous about badgering public officials to have it removed/swept/pick your term.
The issue I see, sometimes, with the critique of people who decry disorder is that those people are somehow selfish, lack empathy, and are demonstrating a small-mindedness that progressives can therefore dismiss or ignore. Indeed, I think many advocates sometimes sound like the person breaking the drug-use or public disorder law is of higher moral value than the citizen who is NOT breaking that law.
It is reasonable, and understandable, for people to want their home communities to be clean, not smell like refuse or bodily waste, and to have public spaces available for all members of the public, rather than quasi-permanently occupied by some subset of that public. (As a thought experiment, imagine hundreds of finance bros set up folding tables in the public parks and shouted at passers by to buy their latest cryptocoin all day.)
It is inarguable that the solutions to these problems are fundamentally intertwined with more and better housing availability, improved diversion programs and resources, and the like. But it is also inarguable, in my view, that the actual nuisance is - itself - its own problem that needs to be addressed, not tolerated.
When people solely advocate for pure tolerance and sympathy towards disorderly behavior, it turns off a subset of empowered, motivated citizens who could be partners for a solution and makes solutions harder to achieve. From a practical politics perspective, we need advocates for civic order to cooperate with urbanists on solutions, rather than dismissing urbanist ideas because the people advocating for them the most are also telling them to tolerate the homeless encampment in the neighborhood park because there isn't enough housing yet. It is a tough needle to thread, but it is important to recognize this reality (in my opinion).
Really loved this piece. Calling this problem disorder as opposed to crime is perfect and highlights where a lot of people who just watch the news and never visit cities misunderstand the problem.
I’m also really happy to see you point out how this is a governance / leadership problem across the board, rather than simply coming down on one side of the culture war!
I'd love to see you write more about this topic, especially solutions. I've lived in New York City since 1998 and the increased disorder feels palpable to me (but sometimes I wonder if I am just getting old and cranky?) Culture wars are erupting right in my own neighborhood (Jackson Heights) about how to address it, but the solutions--even from that political leaders I admire--don't seem like the right ones.
Telling about CityLab (maybe less so Utopian Hours... but I could just be romanticizing Europe). It's an elephant in the room that cities, at least North American cities, have fundamentally become worse, less appealing places to live in the last four years... especially West Coast cities, and, ahem, my long-term home of Seattle (ding ding ding). Urbanists will die on the hill of living in dense, walkable, transit-rich places regardless of street-level conditions. Normies often don't really care that much about the built environment, at least not so explicitly, especially if they are raising kids.
While it is absolutely fair to distinguish disorder from crime, especially w/r/t homeless encampments the link is very real:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/shootings-in-seattle-are-increasing-shootings-connected-to-homelessness-are-increasing-faster/
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/in-one-big-way-seattles-homeless-encampment-removals-have-worked/
Encampments account for a disproportionate amount of gun violence in Seattle this decade. It's one reason when an encampment sprang up four blocks away en route to my kid's preschool, I was zealous about badgering public officials to have it removed/swept/pick your term.
The issue I see, sometimes, with the critique of people who decry disorder is that those people are somehow selfish, lack empathy, and are demonstrating a small-mindedness that progressives can therefore dismiss or ignore. Indeed, I think many advocates sometimes sound like the person breaking the drug-use or public disorder law is of higher moral value than the citizen who is NOT breaking that law.
It is reasonable, and understandable, for people to want their home communities to be clean, not smell like refuse or bodily waste, and to have public spaces available for all members of the public, rather than quasi-permanently occupied by some subset of that public. (As a thought experiment, imagine hundreds of finance bros set up folding tables in the public parks and shouted at passers by to buy their latest cryptocoin all day.)
It is inarguable that the solutions to these problems are fundamentally intertwined with more and better housing availability, improved diversion programs and resources, and the like. But it is also inarguable, in my view, that the actual nuisance is - itself - its own problem that needs to be addressed, not tolerated.
When people solely advocate for pure tolerance and sympathy towards disorderly behavior, it turns off a subset of empowered, motivated citizens who could be partners for a solution and makes solutions harder to achieve. From a practical politics perspective, we need advocates for civic order to cooperate with urbanists on solutions, rather than dismissing urbanist ideas because the people advocating for them the most are also telling them to tolerate the homeless encampment in the neighborhood park because there isn't enough housing yet. It is a tough needle to thread, but it is important to recognize this reality (in my opinion).
Really loved this piece. Calling this problem disorder as opposed to crime is perfect and highlights where a lot of people who just watch the news and never visit cities misunderstand the problem.
I’m also really happy to see you point out how this is a governance / leadership problem across the board, rather than simply coming down on one side of the culture war!
Thank you! You are a tough critic, which I appreciate :) I'm glad this one resonated.