I am a New Yorker but I rode the Charlotte Light Rail a few times last year during a business trip. I always use public transit when I can, even when outside my home city. Outside of rush hour, the Light Rail didn’t feel so safe compared to the NY City subway. A disproportionate number of people on it seemed really down and out and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
I think there is a chicken-or-egg issue with attitudes transit. If you live in a city like New York where transit is the most convenient form of transportation and driving really sucks, millionaires and poverty cases alike make heavy use of public transit, it is nearly always well attended, and you don’t generally feel insecure taking it. But in most cities in America, only the poor use public transportation, and this contributes to an air of unsafety.
I would love to see more dense city development, preferably with lower crime rates than NYC, but even that would be a start. I agree Chicago is not NYC, but the three years I lived there, I took the various trains everywhere, there were many places to live and lots of places to eat and shop easily accessible by foot or transit. It’s a great lifestyle if you want it. But if one doesn’t feel safe in those activities, eventually those activities wither on the vine. I remember when BART was great. Not any more. General not-safe-ness is a big reason.
The joy of dense public activities requires a perception of relative safety. You don’t get that without public order. Public order requires the enforcement of basic minimums of acceptable conduct. Pretty much the opposite of the progressive local DA agenda. It’s not just YIMBY-ism. It requires a willingness to insist on public order and to impose consequences for those who will not comply, even if life sux for people at the lower end of the income scale in those dense environments. As a country, we made fateful decisions when we decided to deinstitutionalize mental health, failed to account for (perhaps provide for) the homeless, shut down development in major urban areas (SF & LA), tolerated or even encouraged open air drug markets, and refused to enforce basic criminal laws.
But I’m just restating your piece Noah. None of this is rocket science.
Progressives are so obsessed with identity politics hokum and other idiotically racist ideas that they long forgot the moral reason for much stronger policing in public transportation is precisely because the poor use it. Instead they let public transportation go to shit and berate anyone defending themselves from robbery and assault as a racist. Deranged people have deranged politics.
Back in 2008 a similar, particularly horrific, unprovoked murder was committed on a Greyhound Bus in my home province by a schizophrenic man. To this day that attack is the primary thing I think of whenever I see a Greyhound Bus, however irrationally, and it significantly hurt their business.
In that case the man had no prior criminal history so there was nothing that could have been done to stop him, unlike in this one. And at least he was sent to a mental institution afterward. It would be nice if there were more mental hospitals still around and we were more willing to send people to them, both for our good and theirs. Some things are unavoidable, but so many problems could be fixed if we were just able to confine people we know are unable to function in civil society.
Great post Noah. People don't like it, but putting up with disorder doesn't make people or our cities better, and it isn't more humane if it makes most of us unsafe or creates a higher level of anxiety and crime amongst our populace. We shouldn't have to abide and put up with people who don't realize we live in a society and there is a social contract. Also we need to hire more police across the board, train them well and frankly bring back more levels of involuntary commitment. It sucks, but clearly what we are doing now isn't working.
Liked because I thought this was provocative but ultimately a very interesting and worthwhile question. Does “surging” the national guard into cities as a form of policing contribute to the same positive incidental effects?
As a brilliant writer with a strong following do you need to use this picture? Please tell me what it adds to your important commentary.
As a survivor of a violent robbery I strongly identify with Iryana and I don’t think she deserves to be remembered for the terror of her last moments. Tell the story. It is important. Remind us how big cities have historically welcomed refugees & immigrants who have survived horror & overcome tremendous obstacles to add positive value to our country. Advocate for the changes we must make. You can do these things without using a picture that reduces her to a quivering victim. She was a brave, resourceful human who found her way out of war. Show us a picture that portrays who she truly was & sparks our imagination to mourn who she could have become.
Liberals' debilitating empathy will put Republicans in power everywhere. They have to go against their own instincts - a really hard thing for them to do, if they want to avoid that. They will need to rely on reasoned thinking, and override their liberal impulses, to implement reasonable policies to detain criminals and mentally ill.
Miko Yasu worked in a Japanese Police Box before she quit to become the manga author of Police in a Pod. The work was later turned into an anime and a live-action slice-of-life drama/comedy. A very refreshing presentation of police work in general and community policing in particular. Most cops don't work in homicide, nor do they hunt terrorists.
The anime is available on crunchyroll, the manga at Amazon, and the English subtitled live action series can be found on the high seas.
I honestly find it so bizarre that you keep saying "progressives" want this and that when you are talking about things that zero progressives or liberals I know want and that are all basically ultra strong practically anarchist level libertarian positions. Where I live it's the right-leaning libertarians who are against cameras, reasonable gun restrictions, involuntary commitment, and everything else you listed here. Who hates cameras on roads and public areas the most? Young men and libertarians. Who doesn't want involuntary commitment or restrictions on crazy people getting guns? Same people? Who is totally unwilling to pay an extra $5 a year in taxes to pay for all of this stuff that would cost a ton of money? Libertarians and the right leaning.
Like what are you even talking about, I trust you are speaking in good faith but this is total bizarro land. Where are the right wingers demanding to pay more in taxes to build involuntary commitment facilities and pay for more police, exactly?? Nowhere to be seen. The police are so underfunded they have to spend all their time issuing traffic citations just to raise revenue, they don't even pretend to bother to investigate crimes or do anything else that doesn't increase their hourly fine rate.
I realize these are actual stupid and incredibly dumb arguments that supposed progressive millennials in cities made the past ten years, but is it anyone but them? And did they perhaps somehow just not notice that they were not in fact advocating for anything one could argue with a straight face to be socially liberal or progressive?? Like they just all adopted anarchist level libertarian talking points and didn't even notice? What is up with that and why is anyone describing it that way. By your simple cross-country comparison, it's obviously not what anyone could call liberal or progressive, it's anti-government anarchy loving extreme libertarianism.
Systemically diverting the chronically mentally ill into newly built up mental institutions would be helpful. The community mental health model failed; if anything blue cities in blue states that spend oodles of money on safety net health systems are particular failures in this regard.
“ A pretty clear illustration of the danger of disorder on public transit comes from New York City this week, where a mentally unhinged person burned a sleeping woman to death on the subway”
This did not happen anywhere near this week and happened last year.
"Americans are simply not going to accept a transit-centric lifestyle unless and until the incidence of violence on trains and buses goes way down. I was about to write a whole post about this, but I realized I already wrote one, last year:
I could probably improve on it a little, but not much. So here’s that post, republished. Urbanists need to take this to heed."
I am a New Yorker but I rode the Charlotte Light Rail a few times last year during a business trip. I always use public transit when I can, even when outside my home city. Outside of rush hour, the Light Rail didn’t feel so safe compared to the NY City subway. A disproportionate number of people on it seemed really down and out and socioeconomically disadvantaged.
I think there is a chicken-or-egg issue with attitudes transit. If you live in a city like New York where transit is the most convenient form of transportation and driving really sucks, millionaires and poverty cases alike make heavy use of public transit, it is nearly always well attended, and you don’t generally feel insecure taking it. But in most cities in America, only the poor use public transportation, and this contributes to an air of unsafety.
How we get from A to B is a big question.
I would love to see more dense city development, preferably with lower crime rates than NYC, but even that would be a start. I agree Chicago is not NYC, but the three years I lived there, I took the various trains everywhere, there were many places to live and lots of places to eat and shop easily accessible by foot or transit. It’s a great lifestyle if you want it. But if one doesn’t feel safe in those activities, eventually those activities wither on the vine. I remember when BART was great. Not any more. General not-safe-ness is a big reason.
The joy of dense public activities requires a perception of relative safety. You don’t get that without public order. Public order requires the enforcement of basic minimums of acceptable conduct. Pretty much the opposite of the progressive local DA agenda. It’s not just YIMBY-ism. It requires a willingness to insist on public order and to impose consequences for those who will not comply, even if life sux for people at the lower end of the income scale in those dense environments. As a country, we made fateful decisions when we decided to deinstitutionalize mental health, failed to account for (perhaps provide for) the homeless, shut down development in major urban areas (SF & LA), tolerated or even encouraged open air drug markets, and refused to enforce basic criminal laws.
But I’m just restating your piece Noah. None of this is rocket science.
Progressives are so obsessed with identity politics hokum and other idiotically racist ideas that they long forgot the moral reason for much stronger policing in public transportation is precisely because the poor use it. Instead they let public transportation go to shit and berate anyone defending themselves from robbery and assault as a racist. Deranged people have deranged politics.
Back in 2008 a similar, particularly horrific, unprovoked murder was committed on a Greyhound Bus in my home province by a schizophrenic man. To this day that attack is the primary thing I think of whenever I see a Greyhound Bus, however irrationally, and it significantly hurt their business.
In that case the man had no prior criminal history so there was nothing that could have been done to stop him, unlike in this one. And at least he was sent to a mental institution afterward. It would be nice if there were more mental hospitals still around and we were more willing to send people to them, both for our good and theirs. Some things are unavoidable, but so many problems could be fixed if we were just able to confine people we know are unable to function in civil society.
Great post Noah. People don't like it, but putting up with disorder doesn't make people or our cities better, and it isn't more humane if it makes most of us unsafe or creates a higher level of anxiety and crime amongst our populace. We shouldn't have to abide and put up with people who don't realize we live in a society and there is a social contract. Also we need to hire more police across the board, train them well and frankly bring back more levels of involuntary commitment. It sucks, but clearly what we are doing now isn't working.
How about adding a paragraph or two on the current policing situation in DC and soon Memphis? Is Trump a secret urbanist?
Well, I don't think his patrols will do much, but I'll wait to see if I'm wrong.
Liked because I thought this was provocative but ultimately a very interesting and worthwhile question. Does “surging” the national guard into cities as a form of policing contribute to the same positive incidental effects?
As a brilliant writer with a strong following do you need to use this picture? Please tell me what it adds to your important commentary.
As a survivor of a violent robbery I strongly identify with Iryana and I don’t think she deserves to be remembered for the terror of her last moments. Tell the story. It is important. Remind us how big cities have historically welcomed refugees & immigrants who have survived horror & overcome tremendous obstacles to add positive value to our country. Advocate for the changes we must make. You can do these things without using a picture that reduces her to a quivering victim. She was a brave, resourceful human who found her way out of war. Show us a picture that portrays who she truly was & sparks our imagination to mourn who she could have become.
Liberals' debilitating empathy will put Republicans in power everywhere. They have to go against their own instincts - a really hard thing for them to do, if they want to avoid that. They will need to rely on reasoned thinking, and override their liberal impulses, to implement reasonable policies to detain criminals and mentally ill.
Miko Yasu worked in a Japanese Police Box before she quit to become the manga author of Police in a Pod. The work was later turned into an anime and a live-action slice-of-life drama/comedy. A very refreshing presentation of police work in general and community policing in particular. Most cops don't work in homicide, nor do they hunt terrorists.
The anime is available on crunchyroll, the manga at Amazon, and the English subtitled live action series can be found on the high seas.
https://mydramalist.com/699343-hakozume-koban-joshi-no-gyakushu/reviews
I honestly find it so bizarre that you keep saying "progressives" want this and that when you are talking about things that zero progressives or liberals I know want and that are all basically ultra strong practically anarchist level libertarian positions. Where I live it's the right-leaning libertarians who are against cameras, reasonable gun restrictions, involuntary commitment, and everything else you listed here. Who hates cameras on roads and public areas the most? Young men and libertarians. Who doesn't want involuntary commitment or restrictions on crazy people getting guns? Same people? Who is totally unwilling to pay an extra $5 a year in taxes to pay for all of this stuff that would cost a ton of money? Libertarians and the right leaning.
Like what are you even talking about, I trust you are speaking in good faith but this is total bizarro land. Where are the right wingers demanding to pay more in taxes to build involuntary commitment facilities and pay for more police, exactly?? Nowhere to be seen. The police are so underfunded they have to spend all their time issuing traffic citations just to raise revenue, they don't even pretend to bother to investigate crimes or do anything else that doesn't increase their hourly fine rate.
I realize these are actual stupid and incredibly dumb arguments that supposed progressive millennials in cities made the past ten years, but is it anyone but them? And did they perhaps somehow just not notice that they were not in fact advocating for anything one could argue with a straight face to be socially liberal or progressive?? Like they just all adopted anarchist level libertarian talking points and didn't even notice? What is up with that and why is anyone describing it that way. By your simple cross-country comparison, it's obviously not what anyone could call liberal or progressive, it's anti-government anarchy loving extreme libertarianism.
Systemically diverting the chronically mentally ill into newly built up mental institutions would be helpful. The community mental health model failed; if anything blue cities in blue states that spend oodles of money on safety net health systems are particular failures in this regard.
“ A pretty clear illustration of the danger of disorder on public transit comes from New York City this week, where a mentally unhinged person burned a sleeping woman to death on the subway”
This did not happen anywhere near this week and happened last year.
"Americans are simply not going to accept a transit-centric lifestyle unless and until the incidence of violence on trains and buses goes way down. I was about to write a whole post about this, but I realized I already wrote one, last year:
I could probably improve on it a little, but not much. So here’s that post, republished. Urbanists need to take this to heed."
Yikes, skimmed too fast. My mistake.