Reply to stabbing in Friendship Heights

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is because of the vouchers on Connecticut Avenue. It’s natural that if you import problems, you get problems. This is why that project with converting the Chevy Chase Community Center into housing is not a good one.
The same investment could be made in low-income wards and uplift those communities with higher security, better schools, improved housing, etc. But those areas are left to continue deteriorating and, instead, children are bused into NW DC schools, vouchers are handed out, etc. The Target on Tenleytown no longer admits youths without adult supervision, there have been shoot outs in Conn Ave apartment buildings with vouchers, crime is on the rise in that corridor….including a rape on Woodley Park/Cleveland Park just a few weeks ago? Is DC so blind to see all this?[/quote]

Friendship Heights is not on Connecticut Avenue.

The housing proposed for Chevy Chase is "affordable" which is different than "vouchers" - there is a difference.
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Statistically, speaking this will still result in an increase in the average crime rate if the affordable housing unit residents have lower income than the average resident in Chevy Chase. [/quote]

So you are saying that the teachers and firefighters and young professionals living in those affordable housing units will be bringing crime to the neighborhood? Please explain.[/quote]

On average yes, a resident of a household that meets the income criteria for one of these units would be more likely to commit a violent crime than a resident from a household income above the cutoff. So the average crime rate will increase in the neighborhood if residents from a new development have household income lower than the existing average for the area.  I'm not saying that they shouldn't build affordable housing, but it would be dishonest and statistically inaccurate to say that low-income or affordable housing will not impact per capita crime rates. The crime income correlation is a well-document phenomenon that exists almost everywhere. Most low-income people do not commit crimes, but people with criminal tendencies are more likely to become low-income due to their antisocial behavior. Unfortunately, this means that affordable housing will result in higher crime crime rates because these people with criminal tendencies (approximately 5-10% of low income population) move in along with the larger group of responsible law abiding residents (90%+ of the low income population). [/quote]

Teachers and firefighters are obviously much more likely to fall into the 90% group that mostly does not commit crime, but the 5-10% that (usually not teachers or firefighters) are more likely to commit crimes will also move in with them. So the misbehaving fraction that accounts for around 1-2% of the total population ruins it for everyone else. 1% of the population commits more than 50% of all violent crimes. It is a relatively small group of violent criminal reoffenders that explaining a significant portion of this correlation between household income and crime rates. [/quote]

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