Street patterns and crime
Werner Kloetzli Jr., the son of the founder of Werner's restaurant on Redwood Street in downtown Baltimore, sent me an interesting e-mail over the weekend. Seems the son decided to be a civil engineer instead of work in the restaurant, and he's convinced that the grid-system that overlays much of Baltimore contributes to crime.
This "endless rectangular maze," he said, "supports crime" by providing an endless maze of streets and narrow alleys that allows criminals easy escape and makes catching them "difficult or impossible."
Kloetzli suggests that some alterations are in order.
This proves again that solving the crime problem is indeed complex. I think Mr. Kloetzli is correct -- and I've seen how city officials and police do sometimes change up our traffic patterns to frustrate the criminals.
Years ago in O'Donnell Heights in Southeast Baltimore, the city changed the direction of one-way streets to make it hard for people looking to buy drugs to continuously drive around the block. Buyers could get off of I-95 and be on a drug corner without ever having to stop a light. In South Baltimore's Pigtown neighborhood, where picking up prostitutes is subject of national Internet sites, there is a "loop" that includes Washington Boulevard that seems tailor-made for cruising.
When the Ravens won the Superbowl (yes, that long ago) I watched with amazement at how city police directed traffic. Thousands of cars were streaming into the city and the Inner Harbor after the game, and the police had it set up so people got off I-395, drove by the Harbor and then were turned around. Before the driver realized what was happening, he was back on I-395 and leaving the city -- bad for the bar business, I suppose, but it allowed people to celebrate and prevented a mob scene downtown.
In East Baltimore, there is a two-block long street that suddenly changes from two-way to one-way. A police officer I was with last week said the community wanted to petitioned for the change to prevent drug buyers from using the road. The extra lane is used for angle parking; that and the neatly kept homes, all with outside lights, signals even in the worst part of town that this area is off-limits to people up to no good.
But I'm interested in hearing whether this also is true on a grander scale, as Mr. Kloetzli suggests. Here is what he wrote:
The inner city grid of streets and alleys, it seems, is a grid system built to support crime. This appears evident in that, after a crime, a guilty party often makes a get-away by disappearing into that grid maze. The drive-by shooter keeps moving and disappears. Apprehension is difficult or impossible. As your blog states, crime is a vexing issue. And it seems that the street and alley grid maze is a major cause of the vexing.
The word grid is used because I am not emphasizing any one individual street, but am emphasizing the overall system, a seemingly endless maze or labyrinth of streets and alleys. The grid is what would be seen looking down from an airplane. There appears to be no logical overall pattern, just an endless rectangular maze.
The City owns and maintains the streets and the alleys. Therefore the City is paying for the criminal get-away routes, that is, the City is subsidizing the criminal. This indicates that the City is working against itself. It pays for the cost of maintaining the streets and alleys, and at the same time pays for police to counter the get-aways. Why not consider some minor alterations in the street and alley system so that, instead of the system helping crime, the streets and alleys work against crime, and help the police?
We certainly can’t rearrange all of the streets and alleys.
But perhaps there is something that could be done to make the get-away routes difficult, something to revamp a small part of the street and alley maze, so that instead of the maze working for the criminal it actually works for the police, something to help the maze make apprehension more positive, and thus something to help prevent crime in the first place.
Sincerely,
Werner Kloetzli, Jr., P.E.
Comments
Short of starting over again from scratch - it's hard to think of a way to change the warren of alleys and streets that make up an old city like Baltimore.
Even if the police could catch all these people who get away, what would happen then? If and that's a big if they were convicted, would they get prison time? Again IF, they would most likely be out on the streets again before the sheets in the cell could get cold.
Also - I am curious to see if the police have noticed an uptick in crime since the economy began foundering. Anecdotal evidence seems to point yes. Also since last week's horrific kidnapping in Timonium at the Light Rail stop, I have seen more police on patrol and a watchtower like device at the station.
Posted by: bryanintimonium | October 20, 2008 11:24 AM
Columbia was built the way it is partially for this reason (just google map Columbia, MD to see the layout of it's streets). The problem is, no one can find their way around! And while Columbia is certainly no Baltimore City while it comes to crime, they have PLENTY of criminals making escapes on their touted "felonpath" oops, I mean footpath system.
Posted by: deeznuts | October 20, 2008 11:49 AM
Jane Jacobs, in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, writes about the contributions of small city blocks to city life and, by extension, a lower crime rate.
I think the street grid of Baltimore is well designed to prevent crime (though one-way streets, long light cycles, and speeding cars do not help matters).
Ultimately, the issue could be that some social, economic, and criminal problems are greater than any powers of urban design.
Posted by: Peter Moskos | October 20, 2008 12:13 PM
I agree the criminals have use the designs of Baltimore streets to their advantage. I am thankful for the new one-way street at (Pennsylvainia Ave and Mosher Street). I have seen a difference in traffic and crime activities. am sick of the drug dealers and drug user that surround Pennsylvania Ave, Fremont Ave, Pitcher St, Wilson St, and Lauren St. They make it very hard for seniors to shop there. Something must be done!!!!!!
Posted by: Penny Rose | October 20, 2008 12:23 PM
This is an interesting notion, and as the earlier poster noted about Columbia, suburban design in recent decades has been to make almost every street a dead end street. This may prevent small crimes, I do not think this is a major deterant to seasoned criminals. I also agree that not having an easy to understand grid system can make it difficult for non criminals to maneuver through. I support leaving the grid intact for the benefits of lower congestion and less confusion, and would rather support another way of reducing criminal activity.
Posted by: Ben | October 20, 2008 12:52 PM
Baltimore City recently passed legislation to allow alley gating throughout the city (at the expense of the property owners'). Currently there are two alleys gated as part of the original pilot program - one in Upper Fells Point and the other in Patterson Park at E. Baltimore/N. Luzerne. Since the alley gates have gone up, there has been no more illegal dumping or prostitution activity (from Baltimore Street) in the alley. If someone wanted to run and hide in the alley, they would have to climb an 8' high gate.
While the gates alone cannot prevent all criminal activity in the alley, the alley is now much cleaner and safer because of them. Residents took ownership of the alley, worked together to make the gating possible, greened the alley and now take pride in it and keep it clean.
One of the main organizations that helped get the legislation passed is Community Greens and they continue to promote alley gating throughout Baltimore. www.ashoka.org/communitygreens
Posted by: Tara | October 20, 2008 1:00 PM
@ Pete-
Thank you for mentioning Jane Jacobs! What a fantastic book! Here's a terrifying notion: I read that book in college and suggested it to a friend who was working on his MA is Planning. His response: "it's not on the reading list but I'll keep it mind".
Hooray for city planners still making the same boneheaded mistakes theyve been making since the 50's!
Posted by: bryanintimonium | October 20, 2008 1:05 PM
all city grids are prone to the same sort of disorder as the city of baltimore, yet, none were designed for the purpose of ease of access and retreat for criminals. still, what was designed for dense habitation has been for generations, barely habitable. until there is absolute access to drug treatment for heroin and cocaine, without waiting list or cost to the addict, there will be no solution to the ease of access for criminal behavior. the need for this is very simple. there are too many people breaking the law in our city. no number of police can control it. until the huge number of people stop doing such things as means to petty survival, until there is a means to a way out of the cycle of addiction, no disfunctional family will ever be able to get on the road to raising kids who are safe, ambitious and hopeful. as it is now, there are thousands of kids in our city who have nothing to lose
my question is: why isn't there running admissions to rehab clinics? in a city where the hospitals blow away most cities before speaking of hopkins, why isnt there a policy of the city to use the drug trials run by hopkins to alleviate the burden10's of thousands of addicts have on the city police, fire j.s.s, courts, emergency rooms etc... dave dinkins did it in nyc in 1990 and the number of addicts went down to a third in six years. plus, nyc's hospitals do not hold a candle to the hospitals of the city of baltimore. until the drug trade no longer rules our city, there is no point in attempting to shuffle wanton addicts around from block to block, neighborhood to neighborhood until, as we can see, more than half of this city is a wreck. peace.
Posted by: emmet | October 20, 2008 10:20 PM