If we rebuilt inner cities, would it impact the lives of the people living there positively or not at all?

Question

If there was more pride in ownership of a nice home and neighberhood would crime slow and greater oppertunities arrise, or would crime sustain and the new building become abandoned and breakdown and cycle back to the way things are?

Answer 1

it's not the buildings or the opportunities, it's the mindset of the people who live there.
granted, better buildings and opportunities COULD change that mindset...but it's difficult to tell how long that would take.

Answer 2

It's not simply a matter of rebuilding inner cities- it's a matter of attacking the root causes of crime and indifference- the lack of access to viable education. it always starts out with what you learn and how you learn it. If the government started out simply by building schools with teachers who wanted to be there and encouraged their children and offered them opportunities to acheive social and economic success- those kids would come back to their hometown one day and start fixing it- maybe even while still in school- these kids would question the relevance of a consistent cycle of violence, drugs, and inequality. Until someone literally revamps America's school system nothing will change period. You can keep putting more people on welfare or gentrify more ghettos or increase gun control legislation or heighten the liquor laws- but the point is kids need to learn how to survive and if this is what they witness daily and their schools are not promoting the option for opportunity and change and growth- why wouldn't the cycle continue?

Rebuilding the inner cities (gentification wise) just makes things worse for people currently living there, by forcing them to seek residence somewhere else- it's a quick money making solution realy

Rebuilding the inner cities (socially) is going to take a long hard analysis of the simple and detailed problems plauguing inner cities- pride is something that is hard to foster among a glum group.

Good question and rock on!

Answer 3

Unless the underlying problems are addressed, it won't make any difference. The situation in our slums isn't a problem of bricks and mortar, but of drugs, gangs, and crime. If we don't take care of that, rebuilding will be like putting a bandaid on cancer!