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(c) 1998 Eastern Humanities
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The problem we wish to face in our urbanism project is that of slum housing. The specific problems are the poor quality of low-income buildings in DC, especially the Southeast (where the average income is 34% less than the national average), the large amounts of crime, drugs, graffiti, and other problems that occur predominantly in these areas, and the lack of community involvement in fixing up the slums of Washington. Our first plan is to get the people in the area involved in cleaning up the neighborhoods and becoming more involved. This includes holding fundraising programs, organizing volunteer programs (for school community service credit), and organizations within neighborhoods/buildings. Fundraising can be done through school programs, donations, and organized sales. Funding will come from non-profit organizations that are involved in projects such as this, programs like the Affordable Housing Program, which works to increase the supply of affordable housing in the district, and corporate sponsors. The groups we organize through this strategy will clean up graffiti, plant trees, fix up buildings that are in disrepair, improve lighting, and increase safety in low-income neighborhoods. This was highly successful at Tulane University in Louisiana, where the whole community helped to improve the low-income areas. These groups and projects will be organized by October 1998; work will start as soon as enough people volunteer and funding is acquired. To improve the safety of these neighborhoods, we hope to implement the defensible space strategy. This is a cost-effective way to decrease crime and make buildings safer and more secure for their residents. This strategy consists of clearly marking property using fences and shrubs, removing visual barriers (high stone walls, tall bushes), improving lighting around buildings, clearly marking play areas and keeping them visible from windows, barricading alleys and keeping cars from arriving undetected or making speedy getaways, and removing potential hiding places such as long corridors and poorly lit areas with lots of shrubs and/or trees. This has proved effective in neighborhoods such as Potomac Gardens (DC) and Five Oaks (Dayton, OH). There was a drastic decrease in crime in these neighborhoods, but a moderate increase in crime in nearby areas. If this is to succeed, it needs to be implemented throughout the affected neighborhoods. We hope to implement this by January 1999 and complete it by July 2000. In the future, buildings will be
maintained by landlords, programs like AHP, and neighborhood organizations.
Funds will be provided by the aforementioned sponsors. The success of this
project will be determined by the subsequent decrease in crime, increase
in safety, and improvement of building and neighborhood quality, as well
as the citizens' opinions about the quality of the buildings.
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