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Comment by tomjakubowski | Hacker News Reader

Don't think you can speak for all city residents. I've lived in DTLA for eight years, across the street from another abandoned building. The whole time it's been graffitied from floor to roof.

Like OP, I enjoy the artwork just outside my window.

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USC literally tells its students not to walk around alone at night and has a LiveSafe app which "has a useful SafeWalk function that allows friends to monitor each other when someone is en route to a destination" - https://safety.usc.edu/tips/

Being an institution with thousands of students, I'd trust their take more than your random anecdote.

How does this possibly correlate to people tagging? Minor non-destructive property crime on the paint of a building is not the same as violent crime, and also the LA crime rate has been shrinking for years. Every college has campus safety guidelines as well that tend to say things like that

"Under the broken windows theory, an ordered and clean environment, one that is maintained, sends the signal that the area is monitored and that criminal behavior is not tolerated. Conversely, a disordered environment, one that is not maintained (broken windows, graffiti, excessive litter), sends the signal that the area is not monitored and that criminal behavior has little risk of detection."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

It is 'just' a criminology theory, with many people who disagree with it.

Improving and more importantly maintaining the environments where people live does reduce crime. Most of the problems people have with broken windows theory is how it has been used to justify excessive policing that victimized people instead of improving things for them.

Why do you think tagging is a thing? It’s a way for gangs to mark their turf, plain and simple. Tagging means gang activity, which means violent crime.

And your assertion about the LA crime rate shrinking for years is incorrect: https://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr01.php

In fact, violent crimes reached their lowest level around 2013, and have been steadily on the rise since then.

Its not plain and simple. As someone who has talked to people who actually do it, it’s much more common to be art-related and marking that someone exists than anything gang related. Maybe it used to be a certain way but it certainly isn’t strongly correlated now.

> Every college has campus safety guidelines as well that tend to say things like that

I have been to a bunch of college campuses to visit my friends over the years. None came close to USC in terms of how scared the local student population was to walk alone outside at night.

I mean, I believe you, because obviously people don’t care enough about petty crime that LAPD doesn’t do crap about it (and yes, I admit that’s a cheap target, I really mean the LA City Council and more broadly, the LA County Board of Supervisors). But would you be okay admiring that art while walking around at 11:30 PM to get a gallon of milk?

If so, please let me know exactly what street you live on, because speaking as a USC graduate who has lived in the LA area for the better part of four decades, I sure as hell wouldn’t.

Yes, I do routinely take late night walks around the neighborhood. Never had any problems - the worst thing is lousy drivers.

Not sure what to tell you. Only a matter of time, I guess.

I once came within seconds of having to pull a knife to protect myself in that area at 2:00 AM. I can tell you, it is NOT safe.

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