Changing Places: The Science and Art of New Urban Planning

Oscar Newman’s 1972 book Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design is widely credited for illustrating how the design of public housing influenced criminal opportunity.18 Newman focused his case studies on NYC public housing complexes, where, he pointed out, robbery rates were much greater in high-rise buildings, even when the actual

INDIVIDUAL DECISIONS are deeply rooted in the context within which we live, work, and play. There are meaningful opportunities to change that context in the form of the physical environments of even the most dangerous and blighted areas to produce healthier and safer living. Individual choices make a difference, but many life choices are heavily sh

The study compared crime around hundreds of buildings cited by the new ordinance that complied with the violation and installed working windows and doors (treated buildings), to hundreds of buildings cited by the ordinance that made no renovations (control buildings). These comparisons were made within the same sections of the city, and treated and

we also found that residents who lived near the newly greened lots were more likely to call the police and complain about smaller nuisances. After a space was cleaned and greened, people seemed to want to keep it that way, stepping up to protect it more often than before. Residents living near newly greened lots also reported significantly less str

While there is a body of research that suggests that public housing is correlated with crime, it remains unclear if it is the buildings’ design, the social organization of public housing,21 its mismanagement,22 or the land-use patterns around these places that promotes crime.23 Weighing the relative impact of these possible causal factors is import

Over the past twenty years, there has been a push for zoning reforms in urban and suburban areas. Inner-city economies have shifted from a basis on manufacturing to service and consumption. Downtowns are now hubs for entertainment and commerce and are increasingly also being seen as destinations for living. A new generation of people—empty nesters

One approach that has been developed and is likely responsible for the turnaround of many downtown districts is the community economic development model of the business improvement district (BID), which is shown to reduce crime in business areas and improve real estate.6 The BID model relies on special assessments levied on commercial properties lo

The large-scale demolitions of public housing complexes was both expensive and disruptive to the people living in them, but it provided a unique opportunity to learn what happens to crime when these complexes are demolished. In the case of Chicago, the housing authority demolished nearly 22,000 units of high-rise public housing and relocated affect

Note that this model does not address the fundamental motivations behind crime; rather, it tries to make crimes inconvenient. The idea is that there are easier targets elsewhere. Some have criticized CPTED because it does not address underlying root causes that make someone likely to commit a crime in the first place. This misses the point. CPTED i