|
http://virtualurbanlab.activeboard.com/
“learning
more about urban transformation”
Urban
restoration getting boost from
new urban lab endeavor
 Partnership
between re-developers of aging urban properties and the police who daily deal
with social ills stemming from neglect and blight will be documented through a
new civic-private venture. The Local
Initiatives Support Corporation and KCPD have forged an alliance to develop and
operate an urban laboratory. This urban
lab, or actually this Virtual Urban Lab, will be designed to test a myriad of
possible interventions, both social and physical, in returning a piece of urban
landscape to a healthy condition.
Differing from previous successes in which police and community
development corporations focused resources in a neighborhood, this effort will
be marked by a higher degree of co-production by participants.
This
effort is intended to proceed beyond fixing broken windows. The fundamental sources of the most violent
of criminal behavior: concentrated
poverty and an absence of collective efficacy (Earls, et.al., 1997) will be
addressed in varied manners. The primary
research question for developers is how to sustain the “bounce” of physical
renewal into the future of the area through the renewal of lives and
opportunities, and the fabric of community. The primary research question for police is
how to transform the 911-driven service model into one which delivers
cost-effective preventive policing in transitional areas.
|