# How would I help better a ghetto neighborhood if I had the resources? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-i-help-better-a-ghetto-neighborhood-if-i-had-the-resources/609346 "2012-01-12T23:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-i-help-better-a-ghetto-neighborhood-if-i-had-the-resources/609346/101 "2012-01-15T00:30:40Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > Oh, and silenus’s answer is pretty good. Jobs and security. > Free day care, or anything, really, that helps parents grow their children responsibly, and that helps those children grow up wanting to be responsible. (My more cynical self wants to suggest free spay-neuter for adults, but that is un-PC and wrong.) > > (I live adjacent to serious ghetto - just north of Flint, Michigan, and do volunteer work with that population.) > > I do think that, for long-term benefits, anything that helps parents and children is key to de-ghetto-izing. This. separate the parents from the children and teach them the skills needed to become productive. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-i-help-better-a-ghetto-neighborhood-if-i-had-the-resources/609346/102 "2012-01-15T00:32:09Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > I don’t think that a post-scarcity world is really achievable. That’s a different question, anyway. No, that’s not what I meant. You said > [@Shakester](#): > > I do think that 99% of currently unemployed people would be gainfully employed if the jobs were there for them. The questions is where are these jobs supposed to come from? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-i-help-better-a-ghetto-neighborhood-if-i-had-the-resources/609346/103 "2012-01-15T01:01:40Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > The questions is where are these jobs supposed to come from? Creating neighborhoods with a diverse income mix is a start. My neighborhood growing up was a fine example of a planned ghetto. Our city needed X amount of halfway houses, Y continuation schools, Z subsidized housing projects, etc. Our brilliant city planners had a great idea- since nobody wants to live near these facilities, why not just put them all in one handy unincorporated area with no say in city politics? While they were at it, they zoned the city’s portion of $99.00 move-in special apartments, weekly rate hotels, pawn shops and other undesirable buildings into one neighborhood. These things create negative synergy with each other. One subsidized apartment building will not bring down a neighborhood. Three blocks of projects will. Crime increased, the next generation moved out in droves to safer suburbs, renting out their houses without improving or maintaining them properly. The small businesses that employed people locally shut down because the people with disposable income moved away. What was a nice-ish working class suburb in my parents day was a straight-out ghetto in mine. The good ending is that the unincorporated area eventually incorporated, and was able to take control of their zoning laws. They managed to attract a few large businesses, zoned some upscale housing and retail and got rid of some of the slum apartment blocks, and the place is actually pretty nice these days. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-i-help-better-a-ghetto-neighborhood-if-i-had-the-resources/609346/104 "2012-01-15T01:06:03Z")
Fund a break dancing competition to save the rec center [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-i-help-better-a-ghetto-neighborhood-if-i-had-the-resources/609346.md?page=5)