Commentary: Focus should be on causes

We have tried to explain the problems faced by Flint neighborhoods and the ways groups have tried to solve them. We have reported what worked and what failed to help other groups be better able to deal with similar problems. Although we focused on specific problems in specific neighborhoods, our goal was to show that there are certain problems that affect the quality of life in all residential neighborhoods.

Frequently we have seen groups fail in

their efforts to improve their neighborhoods because they focused all of their energy on trying to treat the symptoms of general deterioration rather than the causes.

For example, a few years ago crime watches were organized in many neighborhoods because people were afraid of becoming crime victims. Highly publicized crimes and highly publicized temporary successes in dealing with crimes by crime watch groups led people to believe they would be safe if a few of their neighbors drove around their neighborhood at night in radio-equipped cars looking for suspicious people. With enough resources these patrols might have some effect in reducing the crime rate in a specific area, but few neighborhoods can recruit enough people to operate an effective neighborhood patrol over an extended period of time.

Moreover, it is a waste of a neighborhood's most valuable resource – the time of the residents who are most likely to work to improve their neighborhood – to deal with one symptom of neighborhood deterioration rather than the causes of deterioration.

Most people would define a good neighborhood as one which is clean, safe and quiet, a neighborhood in which they can pursue their private interests with a minimum of unwanted interference.

Although the relative priority of these characteristics varies from neighborhood to neighborhood and from individual to individual, they are the common elements which characterize a good neighborhood.

A decline in any of these characteristics indicates a deterioration of the quality of life in a neighborhood – a symptom rather than a cause of the disease.

Treating the symptom can only provide temporary relief. For example, if there is a lot of trash being dumped in a neighborhood residents can clean it up (treat the symptom), or they can try to eliminate the problem at the source (treat the disease).

If there are a lot of loud car radios in the neighborhood, residents can shut their doors and windows and buy ear plugs to muffle the sounds, or they can try to eliminate the cause of the problem.

Some people only see the symptoms of neighborhood deterioration. They either do not understand what causes it or they are unwilling to spend the time necessary to eliminate it.

Consider a major cause of neighborhood deterioration – heavy automobile traffic within a neighborhood. A neighborhood with a heavy volume of through-traffic will suffer a wide variety of symptoms. Its residents will be exposed to danger from speeding cars using the neighborhood as a shortcut between a point outside of the neighborhood to another point outside the neighborhood. Litter, noise and crime will be problems because the neighborhood is easily accessible to a large number of non-residents.

You could try to solve each problem individually, but it is more effective to deal with the cause – the heavy volume of transient traffic. If you make it possible for people going to a point in the neighborhood to enter, but make it easier for those just passing through to go around the neighborhood, you will eliminate

a major cause of deterioration as well as a variety of symptoms.

Of course, as the group representing the residents of my neighborhood have found, there will be opposition to this common sense approach for preserving and improving the quality of life in a neighborhood. Some people will oppose it because they feel they will be inconvenienced. Others will oppose it because they have a vested financial interest in promoting conditions which adversely affect a neighborhood - such as the owner of a party store who profits from a small percentage of a high volume of transient traffic.

But such opposition should not deter residents trying to improve their neighborhood.

City ordinances and policies designed to protect the public health, safety and welfare are on the side of the residents. For example, within the Central Park neighborhood which is zoned B (two-family residential), the areas zoned for businesses are limited to uses which primarily provide goods and services needed daily or frequently by residents of the nearby residential neighborhoods. Commercial uses which would adversely affect the neighborhood are prohibited.

In future issues we will deal with some of the other causes of neighborhood deterioration, such as a lack of enforcement of city ordinances and the replacement of housing with non-residential uses.

G.P.C