No broken windows!

J. Roughan

29 October 2009

Honiara    

 

New York City, up to a few years ago, was not known as a safe city to live in. Crime, all kinds of crime--murder, arson, rape, robbery, etc. etc.-- were a large part of normal city life. Certain parts of the city, for instance, you just didn't walk about. These were the tough and dangerous neighborhoods. Having a walk about in these places was not a healthy thing to do!

 

Then something strange happened! Serious crime events began to fall. Less and less criminal activity and I mean serious criminal acts began to disappear from the city's streets.

 

Many claimed it was because of better policing. Others said, yes, more and better police work was important but the real reason was 'getting tough' with criminals. Their usual response: quicker and longer jail sentences was given as the best explanation for the big crime rate fall. But something else, something completely different from the usual responses to crime and criminals, was also happening city wide. Fewer and fewer broken and smashed windows could be found. These were being repaired and quickly so!

 

New York City had just elected a new mayor, Rudolf Guiliani, a no nonsense, hard-nosed politician who was determined to do something new and different to tackle the city's well earned reputation for crime. He was working on a new theory and was determined to put it into practice in the "Big Apple", New York's City's special name.

 

He figured that a clean, fixed up and neat city were just as important as vigorous policing, strong courts and honest politicians to creatively respond to the city's soaring crime statistics. In other words, a city that showed pride in itself, gave off positive vibes and sent an up beat message could quickly overcome negative signals.

 

Mayor Guiliani bet his reputation and years of basic good governance, that a clean, working and beautiful city would rub off on all levels of society. He figured that the rich and the poor, the employed and those without jobs, families and single people would rather back a winning team than throw in their lot with a bunch of losers.

And it worked and is continuing to work! New York City is one tough place. I called it home for my first 20 years in life. Its 12 million people are no push overs. They hustle, live fast and furious lives and don't usually look to others for help. NYC is not a place to relax in but one that forces you to either 'shape up or ship out'.  It is the last place in the world to be easily convinced that keeping a city clean, repaired and functioning was a great formula for basic peace and order as well.    

 

Can we in Honiara learn a few lessons from one of the world's great cities? Can you imagine what our small city could be if we all pitched in to keep the place clean, tidy and rubbish free? Honiara's City Council just inherited a bunch of rubbish removal trucks, hundreds of large rubbish  bins and is currently mounting a "Keep Honiara Campaign".

 

If NYC turned its crime rate around by mending broken windows, cleaning up its streets and fixing up run down buildings what would the same medicine do to Honiara's petty and not so petty crime. Repairing a few broken windows or cleaning up the plastics along the street, on their own, do little to reduce crime. But what it does is to send a message to all that this is our town, the place we call home, and everyone can relate to such a message. Finally Honiara is equipping itself with the tools--rubbish trucks, hundreds of rubbish bins, etc.--to make a difference. Now all that is needed is a public to pitch in and change our town into the best in the Pacific.