Broken parks

Milwaukee's right wing pundits are big fans of Scott Walker -- a dumb, antidemocratic failure whom nobody likes.

They also espouse to be fans of the "broken windows" school of policing. But typically they're thinking of the way it was put into action by Rudy "Bad Catholic" Guiliani -- arresting squeegee guys, people who jump the turnstiles in the subway, etc. Bust people for the little crimes and people will be less likely to commit bigger crimes. Or so the thinking goes (and the Brawler's not going to enter into the debate on the efficacy Giuliani's war on crime).

Thing is, the whole notion of Broken Windows -- as first articulated by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in the Atlantic Magazine in 1982 -- goes far beyond arresting people who commit petty crime. It's about addressing an entire environment that encourages disorder and crime.

From the article:

... at the community level, disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked, in a kind of developmental sequence. Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing. (It has always been fun.)

Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, reported in 1969 on some experiments testing the broken-window theory. He arranged to have an automobile without license plates parked with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and a comparable automobile on a street in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked by "vandals" within ten minutes of its "abandonment." The first to arrive were a family--father, mother, and young son--who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value had been removed. Then random destruction began--windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult "vandals" were well-dressed, apparently clean-cut whites. The car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more than a week. Then Zimbardo smashed part of it with a sledgehammer. Soon, passersby were joining in. Within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed. Again, the "vandals" appeared to be primarily respectable whites.

Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder and even for people who ordinarily would not dream of doing such things and who probably consider themselves law-abiding. Because of the nature of community life in the Bronx--its anonymity, the frequency with which cars are abandoned and things are stolen or broken, the past experience of "no one caring"--vandalism begins much more quickly than it does in staid Palo Alto, where people have come to believe that private possessions are cared for, and that mischievous behavior is costly. But vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers--the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility--are lowered by actions that seem to signal that "no one cares."

We suggest that "untended" behavior also leads to the breakdown of community controls. A stable neighborhood of families who care for their homes, mind each other's children, and confidently frown on unwanted intruders can change, in a few years or even a few months, to an inhospitable and frightening jungle. A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened, become more rowdy. Families move out, unattached adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move; they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates. People start drinking in front of the grocery; in time, an inebriate slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off. Pedestrians are approached by panhandlers.

*****

... When an interviewer asked people in a housing project where the most dangerous spot was, they mentioned a place where young persons gathered to drink and play music, despite the fact that not a single crime had occurred there. In Boston public housing projects, the greatest fear was expressed by persons living in the buildings where disorderliness and incivility, not crime, were the greatest. Knowing this helps one understand the significance of such otherwise harmless displays as subway graffiti. As Nathan Glazer has written, the proliferation of graffiti, even when not obscene, confronts the subway rider with the inescapable knowledge that the environment he must endure for an hour or more a day is uncontrolled and uncontrollable, and that anyone can invade it to do whatever damage and mischief the mind suggests."

Here are a few pictures the intrepid Gretchen Schuldt has run on her blog Milwaukee Rising. These are from Washington Park, part of the Brawler's native Washington Heights:

And from Jacobus Park, another of the Brawler's old haunts:

The last picture is of vegetation growing in the choked gutters of the park pavilion. As Schuldt shrewdly notes: "Yo! Scott! Letting gutters get clogged like this will end up costing a lot more than keeping them clear in the first place."

Again the words from Wilson and Kelling:

Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing. ... Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder and even for people who ordinarily would not dream of doing such things and who probably consider themselves law-abiding. ... In Boston public housing projects, the greatest fear was expressed by persons living in the buildings where disorderliness and incivility, not crime, were the greatest. Knowing this helps one understand the significance of such otherwise harmless displays as subway graffiti. As Nathan Glazer has written, the proliferation of graffiti, even when not obscene, confronts the subway rider with the inescapable knowledge that the environment he must endure for an hour or more a day is uncontrolled and uncontrollable, and that anyone can invade it to do whatever damage and mischief the mind suggests."

The Brawler is not suggesting that if Milwaukee's parks were overhauled overnight that the city's crime problems would disappear. Nor, obviously, is the Brawler blaming Milwaukee's crime problems on Walker. But the Brawler would suggest that Walker's neglect -- his willful neglect -- of the county's park system fosters a sense of disorder. What have broad swathes of the system become but "untended property" where "no one cares"?  Then again, in some areas there are few ways vandals can improve on Walker's handiwork.

The park system has been one of the county's greatest assets during the Brawler's relatively short time on the planet. Letting an asset deteriorate, as Walker has done, undermines the entire community.

Walker has to go and be replaced by someone who understands that caring for an asset like our park system is not merely an expense but truly an investment. At a minimum, someone who can figure out how to clear out gutters.

Comments

[Left guy]

It's at this point that the ever inciteful Owen Robinson would cavalierly say I don't see a problem. At least not from my all white neighborhood in Washington County. After all Scott(they're on a first name basis) has done a great job "holding the line on taxes " Like a good conservative should. I wonder if Walker recommended increased spending to better the parks if Owen would call him a whore like he did Brett Davis?

[capper]

Broken parks, brought to you by a man with a broken soul.