| It wasn’t long before the good tenants were all gone. The area got a “reputation.” Decent people wouldn’t even look at apartments there, much less move in. |
It kind of crept up on them. Graffiti began appearing here and there and the neighbors said, “oh, we’ll have to get rid of that. But not today. Let’s wait until there’s enough to bother painting over.” People, either neighbors or folks from out of the area, left trash on the ground and it piled up. Neighbors began saying, “that really looks bad, I wish somebody’d clean it up.” But nobody did. Within a few months graffiti covered the walls—now there was too much to deal with. Trash blew around and piled up in corners. Old junker cars were left on the streets in pieces. Neighbors began to say, “this just isn’t the same neighborhood it used to be. We used to be able to walk the streets anytime of the day or night and feel safe. Not any more.” But when you looked at the crime statistics, they weren’t any higher; the neighborhood just looked as if they should be. As things deteriorated and people began to fear for their safety more and more. They let things go even further and completely forgot about keeping public areas cleaned up. After all, “it isn’t safe out there.” They also became less likely to stop teenagers and adults who were messing around, hassling people or being rowdy. In fact people hardly paid any attention to what went on in the streets any more. Sensing “fewer eyes on the street” delinquent preteens and teenagers became bolder and even brazen in harassing and vandalizing. Knowing they could get away with it, these delinquents committed more and more petty crimes and became more and more disorderly. The residents, both homeowners and tenants, sensing that the youths were becoming increasingly troublesome, withdrew even further from public spaces. They never went to the parks or community centers, because that’s where punks hung out. In fact they didn’t want to leave their properties for too long a time: you never knew when someone would break in. At this point scum from outside the neighborhood saw the obvious. They saw all the graffiti that no one painted over, they saw the trash, the junker cars and no on on the streets except punk kids. It was open season. Here was a neighborhood where nobody cared. It wasn’t long before the good tenants were all gone. The area got a “reputation.” Decent people wouldn’t even look at apartments there, much less move in. Landlords had to lower rents just to get anybody to rent from them. Even then they couldn’t be too picky. Now the rent comes only sporadically and it’s a hassle collecting it. Landlords can’t afford to keep up their properties, because what rent they get is not nearly enough to pay for the work of any but the most basic repairs. Even then, the landlord doesn’t like going into the neighborhood. After all, “it’s not safe. And it was such a nice area just a couple of years ago.” |