Balancing affordability with safety

While affordability is the biggest issue when finding a place in New York City (our field of study this week), it’s usually balanced against what’s an even larger concern – safety. The less safe the neighborhood, the more affordable the housing is.

Neighborhoods with high crime rates; where one doesn’t feel safe walking at night, are usually where poverty is most prevalent. It’s important to empathize that poverty is a natural, harmless condition until it’s allowed to concentrate entirely in single areas. This is one benefit of gentrification to a degree – enabling income diversity in a neighborhood that is completely poverty-stricken, where residents’ lifelong dream is to ‘get out’.

So, what are the initial signs of income diversity in neglected neighborhoods, and thus improving public safety? The most reassuring is seeing people on the street at all hours, a condition known as eyes on the street. More tomorrow…

Have you seen neighborhoods go from completely undesirable to having some hope? Speak your mind below…

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