Health equity devolves to cities and states as the federal government cuts taxes for the wealthy

I have a bunch of pieces on equity planning and social urbanism, touched off by my experience on a DC Grand Jury.  As one of the court reporters said "breaking the cycle--man, we're just cutting the grass."  I figured that the city spends a couple billion dollars a year on the impoverished in DC, just to keep them in place.

-- "An outline for integrated equity planning: concepts and programs" (2017)
-- "Equity planning: an update" (2020)
-- "Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC" (2022)
-- "Experiments in Social Urbanism"
-- "'Social urbanism' experiment breathes new life into Colombia's Medellin Toronto Globe & Mail
-- "Medellín's 'social urbanism' a model for city transformation," Mail & Guardian
-- "Medellín slum gets giant outdoor escalator," Telegraph
-- "Medellín, Colombia offers an unlikely model for urban renaissance," Toronto Star

Some cities have launched poverty reduction and area-based economic development programs to address this, like GrowSouth in Dallas ("Cities Need Goals and Capital to Fight Poverty," Catalyst) or Invest SouthWest in Chicago ("Johnson Administration Breathes New Life into INVEST South/West Developments in Englewood," South Side Weekly, "Invited In Only To Be Shut Out," Block Club Chicago, Next Steps, West Humboldt Park, "City announces four new targets for Invest South/West," Crain's Chicago Business).  

United Way Greater Toronto for more than a decade has focused its program funding on languishing impoverished neighborhoods ("Guiding the United Way through the next decade," Toronto Star).  From the article:

United Way Greater Toronto just launched an incredibly ambitious 10-year strategic plan. We’re going to sustain the 10 community hubs we have and create 10 more. Hubs are like a one-stop shop for social and healthcare services in neighbourhoods that need it most. So, it improves access to services. It improves quality. It pulls together organizations under one roof, so it increases collaboration across organizations.

Our second goal is a community real estate vision. Seventy per cent of the community organizations we support are at risk of losing their space, and they’re also at risk of then being, in essence, priced out of communities that need them the most. We have a real focus on supporting those organizations to ensure the stability of those physical sites being owned by community organizations and stewarded for generations to come.

At least with the cities, the programs tend to wax and wane as new administrations succeed previous ones more committed to poverty. 

If we think that cities (and counties, see "Pontiac Michigan: a lagging African American city in one of the nation's wealthiest counties" and "East County, Montgomery County, Maryland: Council redistricting spurs ideas for revitalization | Part 1 -- Overview") should focus on addressing poverty with place-based solutions, I'm thinking it's the same with health equity.  Programs like Medicaid expansion--run at the state level in most places--provide health care to people who are medically needy.

This op-ed in City & State by NYC's health commissioner, "I am New York City’s doctor. This is how we treat chronic disease" makes the point that as the federal government cuts health programs (and medical research) cities and states should step up and fill the gap.

[RFK Jr.] has fired at least 20,000 employees from the Department of Health and Human Services. Billions of dollars in lifesaving medical research have been cut. Tens of millions of Americans, including millions of New Yorkers, will lose their Medicaid, Medicare, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits because of Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The record-breaking government shutdown multiplied the confusion and loss.

... My job is to support all New Yorkers in leading their healthiest lives, no matter their income or neighborhood. We have the experience and expertise to improve outcomes and even prevent chronic disease entirely. We know what approaches are proven to make a lasting impact.

That’s why, at the New York City Health Department, we recently released a city-wide chronic disease prevention strategy, which outlines how local government can address the root causes of chronic disease.

The strategy recommends promoting healthy living through nutritious foods and physical activity. But we must also meet people’s material needs. Improving access to basic resources – with direct cash payments, grocery credits and more – has a proven impact on health. And informed conversations around marketing, product design and creative media approaches can increase consumer awareness of the health impacts of the products they buy.

When people can afford the things they need – housing, health care, the ability to put healthy food on the table – they aren’t waiting to be treated in the ER once they’re in crisis.

This also comes up in Chicago, with multi-decade differences in life expectancy based on race, income, and neighborhood ("As they live Chicago's 'death gap,' a 3-generation family fights to end it," Chicago Sun-Times).

These kinds of statistics are the basis of the concept of "social determinants of health" 

and programs to address the disparities.

I have a series of articles about developing a comprehensive program at the bigger city scale on health equity, but I never termed it that way.  City and county poverty amelioration programs need to focus on health equity as an element of equity planning, and these entries lay out a way forward.

-- "Ordinary versus Extraordinary Planning around the rebuilding of the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington DC | Part One: Rearticulating the system of health and wellness care East of the River" (2018)
-- "Revisiting East of the River medical care: United Medical Center" (2018)
-- "Update on DC's plans to build a new United Medical Center" (2018)
-- "A glaring illustration of the need for comprehensive health and wellness planning in DC: Providence Hospital" (2018)

-- "Community Health Improvement Planning" (2019)

-- "Hospitals as urban anchors/revitalization levers, not usually, but with great potential to serve communities in important ways: Examples are two forthcoming projects by Intermountain Health and University of Utah Health" (2023)

-- "Big omission in blog series on advance hospital/health and wellness planning, public health planning: addiction services" (2024)

-- "Costly failures in the mental health system" (2025)

Disorder | Fare evaders at Columbia Heights Metrorail Station, Washington, DC

This is a screengrab of a tweeted video from Maria on X.  I can't figure out how to embed the actual video in Blogger.  

It's pretty disturbing.  This is clear evidence that the evaders don't care too much about community, public goods, etc.

And it's a point missed by the social justice types who fueled the decriminalization of fare evasion ("D.C. Council decriminalizes Metro fare evasion: ‘I’m sad that’s Metro’s losing money, but I’m more sad about what’s happening to black people.’," Washington Post, 2018, "Metro cracks down on fare evasion in D.C., leading to jump in fines," Post, 2024).  

While people don't like the language, fare evasion is a gateway act to disorder and likely increases disorder and criminal acts.

The one thing I learned in DC during the 80s and 90s when things were really bad is that there is a fine line between order and disorder, and letting disorder fester ("Defining Deviance Down: How we've become accustomed to alarming levels of crime and destructive behavior," Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Explaining Urban Social Disorder and Violence: An Empirical Study of Event Data from Asian and Sub-Saharan African Cities," International Interactions, 2012, "Disorder in urban neighborhoods -- does it lead to crime?," DOJ) always has bad outcomes.  From the DOJ paper:

The research produced an alternative interpretation of the link between disorder and crime, one that sees many elements of disorder as part and parcel of crime itself. Typical activities categorized as social disorder, such as soliciting prostitutesand loitering, and incivilities like painting graffiti are evidence of either crime or ordinance violations. The forces producing these minor crimes may be the same as those that produce more serious crimes, with the difference only in the degree of seriousness. Viewed this way, disorder and crime are manifestations of the same phenomenon.

And that it is easy for things to decline unless you always remain vigilant and focused on maintaining order.

As charlie points out, it was the public safety improvements starting in the late 1990s, culminating in severe crime drops, that led people to choose to live in cities starting in the 2000s  after decades when trends dissuaded all but the most motivated people from city living ("Claims of ‘lawlessness’ on New York City subways increase danger, critics say," Guardian).

-- What caused the crime decline, Brennan Center
-- Crime analysis for problem solvers in 60 small steps, DOJ
-- Center for Problem Oriented Policing, Arizona State
-- "Does "Broken Windows" Law Enforcement Reduce Serious Crime?," DOJ

Many elected officials and stakeholders don't seem to be aware of that or acknowledge it or recognize it or keep that top of mind when they make decisions ("Inside the D.C. Council’s turn away from progressive crime strategies," Post).

I understand that structural racism is bad, and have argued for community investment to address it ("Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021) but it doesn't obviate responsibility for your acts and behavior, which the social justice movement doesn't acknowledge, especially with the crime law overhaul that passed in 2023, and has just been reversed with the recent changes.

-- DC Justice Lab
-- Criminal Code Reform Commission, DC Government
-- "What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About DC's Crime Bill," Washingtonian Magazine
-- "The Sentencing Project Condemns DC Council’s Passage of Secure DC Crime Bill"

Transit safety and security: Broken Windows theory and reality | and the state of transit safety today

Liverpool Echo photo.

When I was in Liverpool in June of 2018, I was really surprised at how many security personnel were present at the Downtown transit stations, at the entrances and on the platforms, all wearing bright yellow vests, because the system seemed pretty safe, that safety wasn't an issue.  

-- MerseyTravel TravelSafe Partnership

MerseyTravel also has a teen "officer" program and an adopt a station program.  One adopter was 12 years old when he started ("Merseyside railway station adopter is just 12 years old," RailAdvent)

Same with one of the main Metro stations in Los Angeles when I rode that system a few years ago. Lots of police but at the time, they seemed unnecessary.

William Bratton, the former police commissioner for New York City, is attributed as the leading proponent of the "Broken Windows" theory of policing ("Broken Windows: The police and neighborhood safety," Atlantic Magazine) which posits that visible disorder in communities--broken windows on empty buildings, abandoned buildings and cars, litter etc.--left unaddressed communicates that it's okay to commit crime.  Addressing this is both a police issue and a community investment issue.  

He didn't ever come across the theory of social urbanism, but that's a good approach to implementation of the ideas of community investment ("Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021) also different ways of serving the community ("Los Angeles police department "Community Safety Partnership," 2014).

In his second autobiography, The Profession: A Memoir of Policing in America, Bratton discusses interviewing for the New York Transit police chief job (which was the stepping stone to commissioner).  He was taken on a tour of the subway system by David Gunn, the president.  

Gunn showed him the disorder in the stations, and said "we can fix the trains and improve service but if this is the way people come into and enter the system, they'll never come back and ride the trains" (paraphrase).

Famously, this environment was addressed by Gunn and Bratton and the subway system was revitalized ("Bill Bratton Explains His Ideas of Good Policing," New York Times).  From the review:

Bratton took over the city’s transit police in 1990, at a time when the transit system was at a low point. Crime was rampant on the subways; the cars were covered with graffiti; riders were sneaking through turnstiles. Bratton implemented a strategy of “quality of life” policing, derived in large part from the “broken windows” theory advanced by the social scientists George Kelling and James Q. Wilson. Controlling minor offenses, they argued, restored a sense of security, and identified petty criminals likely to graduate to more serious crimes. The strategy seemed to work better than even Bratton could have predicted. In less than two years, robberies on the transit network were down 40 percent and crime as a whole was down 22 percent. It was such a striking — and unexpected — success that when the job of New York police commissioner opened up in 1994, when Bratton was back in Boston, there really was no other logical choice for it.

But thinking about this later, I think Bratton's policing approach on NYC Transit is the only example of actual implementation of a Broken Windows approach of investment in the facilities and service improvements--which are the facilities that present the potential for disorder in a transit system--and enhanced policing in the stations.

When Bratton became police commissioner they didn't do Broken Windows, they did "Data Oriented Policing" now he calls this Precision Policing, focused on addressing crime and the use of police time based on geodemographic analysis of crime data within precincts.

Later he was fired because Mayor Guiliani didn't like how much attention that Bratton got by the press and public, and the policing strategy changed from data based to what is called Zero Tolerance Policing, which could be pretty oppressive and didn't engage the community.  As crime dropped and police needed things to do, this was implemented in communities of color as "stop and frisk" which was later found unconstitutional.

Other police departments implemented forms of data based policing but mostly zero tolerance.  The alternative approaches community policing or problem-oriented policing--a mix of Broken Windows and precision policing--were pretty much ignored.

The state of transit safety today.  The media is full of reports of serious safety problems on transit networks--murders, assaults, and other terrible crimes.  Drug use--a few days ago BART had three overdose deaths on the system in one day.  And other problems like homelessness, panhandling, mental health issues, etc.

Crime increased during covid, although it is trending down.  But commensurate with the decline in transit use--the big systems have about 50% of the ridership they had pre-covid--there are fewer "eyes on the street" and a lot more problems reducing the likelihood of people returning to transit.

This was accentuated by the pre-covid social justice movement which led to some cities like DC and NYC decriminalizing fare evasion.

At the time many transit advocates including myself were opposed, because of the sense that it would denigrate a sense of responsibility towards the public good of transit.  Plus the findings during Bratton's time that fare beaters often committed other crimes on the system.

I read a lot of posts and comments on social media about transit system safety, and online media ("Metro gets earful from callers about safety, service, homeless on buses, trains," "Metro riders speak out about crime, drug use and homeless on transit system," "Survey says: Fewer females ride LA Metro buses and trains, many citing safety and harassment," Los Angeles Daily News).  

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 31: BART Crisis Intervention Specialists Ontreal Wiltz, left, and Morey Deundra Moore, center, talk with a man at the Fruitvale Station on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in Oakland, Calif. The BART transit agency is venturing into the area of homeless services to deal with an ever worsening homelessness crisis on trains, and in stations. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

Some systems have responded with ambassadors as opposed to more police, which are more costly ("LA Metro’s ‘Transit Ambassadors’ offer alternative to armed officers," Los Angeles Daily News).  Many systems are adding fare-focused ambassadors ("Sound Transit fare ambassadors are checking if you paid, but nicely," Seattle Times).

Most systems have personnel devoted to address homeless issues, including social workers.  BART recently hired a couple dozen more people to work on this ("A transit agency is taking on the Bay Area homelessness crisis," San Jose Mercury News), transit ambassadors and crisis intervention specialists.

Safety on transit definitely is top of mind for many potential riders, especially those people predisposed against mass transit--hence the rise of ride hailing (Uber, Lyft) which on a per trip basis is much more expensive, but more convenient as it usually is a point to point trip.

Hardening fare turnstiles.  In response to the decriminalization, severe loss of revenue, and crime on the system, major subway systems like NYC and DC are installing new types of fare gates which make turnstile jumping more difficult.

St. Louis is enclosing its light rail stations making them controlled access to rebuild confidence in the system.  Light rail systems are known for mostly having open platforms.  Unlike subway stations, where you have to pay before you can enter, on light rail it's more the honor system, with open access.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune published a series on how to improve public safety on the light rail network in Greater Minneapolis:

-- "Systemic insecurity: Saving Twin Cities light rail"
-- "The safety-first effort in St. Louis: 'We had a problem to solve'"
-- "Light rail in the Twin Cities: We have a problem to solve"
-- "Eight recommendations for Twin Cities light rail"

In response the St. Louis Metrolink system commissioned a Metro Security Assessment and Strategy study.  The final report listed 99 improvement recommendations, in four categories: technology improvements; security staffing; procedures and training; and fare enforcement.  Right now more safety personnel visible on trains and other changes have been implemented, and they are implementing creating restricted access platforms

From the St. Louis article (paragraphs reordered):

... Every aspect of operations was reexamined with an eye toward keeping passengers safe. Then, because Roach felt more was needed to rebuild trust in the system, he resurrected an earlier proposal to physically secure the platforms. By spring 2024, the first four stations should be complete.

--- Metro St. Louis Secure Platform Program 

The light-rail system in the St. Louis area is second only to that in the Twin Cities area as the largest in the Midwest, with two lines and 38 stations that span two states. Like the Twin Cities, St. Louis also faced issues with rising crime and declining ridership that predated the pandemic. 

After a series of violent crimes, leaders here took decisive action starting in 2018. They zeroed in on one element above all else: rider safety. The overhaul that followed changed the city's entire approach, with a single-minded, unapologetic, safety-first mindset that has resulted in a far more visible security presence, from police and other staff on trains to better use of technology. 

The final phase is in progress now: a potentially groundbreaking conversion from the open "honor" system, like the one used in the Twin Cities, to one in which gates and fences ensure that only paid passengers have access to platforms and trains. The $52 million project includes a rarity in transit: a public/private partnership in which major downtown corporations are putting up $10 million to help fund the conversion.

... Roach touched on a point that should resonate with Minnesotans. "As we looked through the arc of what we needed to accomplish, it was confidence in the system," he said. "This is a publicly supported system, so I need folks even out in the suburbs, who may not ever take light rail, to still understand it has value. Like any Midwestern community, they want to know that it's fair and that it's safe. We decided if we could make a bold step like [secured platforms], we could really change the reality and perception of this system." The system, he said, is one in which "the public has invested millions. And they were asking us to rethink public safety."

The Star-Tribune recommends that Minneapolis go to a restricted access system for the light rail system.  According to surveys, Minneapolis Metro residents want improvements in public safety and fare enforcement.  And Minneapolis Metro has installed thousands of cameras in facilities and on trains, has a homeless intervention program, and transit ambassadors to add more eyes on the street in the system.

From "Eight recommendations for Twin Cities light rail":

• Adopt a single-minded focus on passenger safety
• Reject a piecemeal approach to safety issues
• Enclose stations as both a symbol and a strategy
• Rely on professionals to bolster security
• Step up fare compliance efforts
• Take a different approach to homelessness
• Adopt and publicize a new code of conduct that clearly and concisely spells out passenger behavior standards and consequences for violators
• Provide the public with a better online dashboard.

That's a pretty good agenda, basically it's a "Fixing Broken Windows" approach.  Also see "Criminology and the Fundamental Attribution Error," a speech by Ronald Clarke on the acceptance of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology (2015).

One that WMATA ought to pay attention to as well.

Other options.  Maybe not every station needs to be access controlled.  Thinking about it, I'd create a typology of stations based on crime statistics.  Maybe every station doesn't need restricted access, but certain stations, especially in the center city, do.

A tent city in front of Washington's Union Station last year before the National Park Service cleared the homeless encampment. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Addressing homelessness.  And the Post has an interesting article about how Amtrak at DC's Union Station has contracted with nonprofit organizations to work with homeless in the station catchment area on moving to permanent housing, getting necessary services, etc. ("Can we solve homelessness? A program at Union Station is a huge step").  

Note that I used to think this kind of program was innovative, but now I think of it as an indicator of system failure in terms of addressing the homelessness issue.  When libraries, parks, and transit systems are spending millions of dollars addressing the ramifications of homelessness on their facilities, it demonstrates an offloading of the problem to other agencies.

Conclusion.  For public agencies that are customer facing every moment they operate, perhaps transit systems are the most likely to execute true Broken Windows policing strategies.  When implemented such approaches see results.  Which ought to be a lesson to police departments and elected officials deal with policing and problems and disorder in their communities.

"24 hour" recreation center proposal: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser

 WJLA-TV reports ("24-hour Rec Center in DC hopes to deter youth crime surge") that as part of a set of anti-violence initiatives, Mayor Bowser is putting more money into recreation centers, with the presumption of longer hours.

The story features a 24-hour event at Turkey Thicket, a recreation center in Ward 5, which is miles away from DC's most violent neighborhoods.  Although according to the article, the hope is to do this every Friday.

I suggested doing something like that, although not so ambitious, back in 2015:

-- "Crime falls 40% in neighborhoods with Summer Night Lights program," Los Angeles Times
-- "Summer Evening Recreation Program at Muskegon High School gets young people off the streets," Muskegon Chronicle
-- Parks After Dark: Preventing Violence While Promoting Healthy, Active Living report, LA County Department of Parks and Recreation
--The Real Deal: The Evolution of Seattle, Washington’s At-Risk Youth Program
-- "Rethinking Sports-Based Community Crime Prevention: A Preliminary Analysis of the Relationship Between Midnight Basketball and Urban Crime Rates," Journal of Sport and Social Issues

Los Angeles has offered a "Summer Night Lights" program for a number of years, aimed at reducing neighborhood and youth violence.

LA Summer Night Lights program, infographic, 2018 results.

FWIW, over the years, I've suggested that at least in the summer, recreation centers stay open til midnight ("Summer hours for parks, libraries, pools, and recreation centers") and I wondered why DC starts closing outdoor pools in August, when hot weather often continues into the beginning of October.

And some neighborhood schools in some places, not DC, open their libraries in the summer.

Plus, even before I blogged (so before 2005), I suggested that DC's central library downtown be open til midnight.  Later I learned that in Montgomery County's conurbations (Silver Spring, Bethesda, Rockville, etc.), during the summer libraries are open til 9 pm Friday and Saturday nights.  Montreal's main library is open til 10 pm many nights of the week.

Too often, schedules for public facing civic assets--schools, libraries, parks, recreation centers--are not congruent with public needs, but focused on the convenience for the agencies running the facilities.

Harvesting best practice: not.  I am always left nonplussed about how DC doesn't seem to do much in the way of harvesting and evaluating best practice before developing programs of its own.  Which is probably why such programs tend to be ineffective and poorly thought out.

Social infrastructure.  The ideas here have to do with providing more social infrastructure to distressed communities, not less.

-- "Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021

How to do it.  Obviously, you don't want hours of operation to compete with school.  At the very least recreation centers should be open til 10pm, and maybe 2 am or 24/hours on weekends and during school breaks including summer.  There should be age restrictions based on school status--kids in school shouldn't be at a recreation center at 3 am on a school night.

But you want recreation and other activities to be made available to older youths, beyond school age, to provide alternatives too.

It's a mistake to remove "Enforcement" from the "E's framework" of bicycle and pedestrian planning

Originally, planning documents for bicycle and pedestrian planning outlined a framework of "five E's":

• Evaluation (planning)
• Engineering (infrastructure)
• Encouragement
• Education
• Enforcement.

Enforcement involves traffic safety initiatives by police departments including ticketing.

The idea was that traffic enforcement should be directed "against" motor vehicle operators, who put more vulnerable users (bicyclists and pedestrians) at risk when they drive unsafely or recklessly.

Later, a sixth E was added:

• Equity.

I wrote about this as an idea after attending a session at the National Bike Summit ("Equity as the sixth "E" in bike and pedestrian planning," 2014).

But it turns out that Minneapolis had added Equity to their 2011 bicycle master plan ("Revisiting bicycle (and pedestrian) planning and the 6th 'E': equity and the City of Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan," 2015).  From the blog entry:

• Need for Geographic Equity: Geographic equity ensures that all parts of the city will see the same types of facilities at the same density and quality. 
• Need for Demographic Equity: Demographic equity ensures that people of all age, race, ethnicity, and gender are treated equally. 
• Need for Modal Equity: Modal equity is achieved when bicycling is treated as an equal mode of transportation alongside autos, trucks, motorcycles, buses, and pedestrians.

In the Tacoma Washington Safe Routes to School Action Plan, they've added what would be a seventh:

• Engagement

which more specifically prioritizes ongoing programming and civic engagement initiatives.

Enforcement has been removed from the 5 E framework.  Apparently in 2020, the League of American Bicyclists removed Enforcement from the framework ("PEDALING TOWARD A MORE JUST BFA PROGRAM: REMOVING “ENFORCEMENT” FROM OUR FRAMEWORK") because:

... “Enforcement” does not equal “Safety” for many People of Color, particularly Black Americans. The racial disparities in over-policing of our streets is a barrier that prevents many from considering biking for transportation or recreation. Enforcement as a stand-alone traffic safety tactic is not particularly effective in achieving long-term safety outcomes for anyone biking or walking.

There's no question that this is an issue.  For example, the LA County Sheriff's Department has used a form of "stop and frisk" on bicyclists, figuring that people who ride bikes are poor and likely to use drugs ("L.A. sheriff’s deputies use minor stops to search bicyclists, with Latinos hit hardest" and "7 of every 10 bike stops by L.A. sheriff’s deputies involve Latino cyclists," Los Angeles Times).

And Seattle repealed its bike helmet requirement, in part they said, because it was disproportionately enforced against people of color ("Seattle Bike Helmet Rule Is Dropped Amid Racial Justice Concerns," New York Times).

But at the same time, there is no question that reckless, dangerous, and inattentive motor vehicle operation puts more vulnerable users at risk.

-- "May is National Bike Month: Advocating for Vulnerable Road User laws," 2021
-- "A reminder about how the entitlement of automobility is embedded into law and democratizes death by accident," 2014

Rather than drop Enforcement from the bicycle planning framework--although because LAB has done so, it becomes a done deal--traffic safety enforcement needs to be reformed.

One way is to apply the equity lens to enforcement, within the 5 E framework, to ensure enforcement actions are fair.  From the article on Seattle:

“The question before us yesterday wasn’t the efficacy of helmets,” said Girmay Zahilay, a board member who is also a member of the King County Council. “The question before us was whether a helmet law that’s enforced by police on balance produces results that outweigh the harm that that law creates.” ...

 
The board of health, made up of elected officials and appointed medical experts from across the county, began to scrutinize the helmet rule in 2020 after an analysis of court records from Crosscut, a local news site, showed that it was rarely enforced, and enforced disproportionately when it was. Since 2017, Seattle police had given just 117 helmet citations, over 40 percent of which went to people who were homeless. Since 2019, 60 percent of citations went to people who were homeless.

A separate analysis from Central Seattle Greenways, a safe streets advocacy group, found that Black cyclists were almost four times as likely to receive a citation for violating the helmet requirement as white cyclists. Native American cyclists were just over twice as likely to receive one as white cyclists. ...

“It was a law that really just allowed the Police Department, the Seattle Police Department, to harass Black and brown community members,” said K.L. Shannon, an organizer for Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and police accountability chair for the Seattle King County chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. 

Ms. Shannon’s nephew was just 8 years old when he and three friends were stopped by an officer a few blocks from their houses for not wearing helmets, Ms. Shannon said. She said the officer accused them of stealing the bikes. “Until this day my nephew doesn’t ride a bike,” Ms. Shannon said. “He’s never forgotten that.”  

WRT the general point that such regulations are disproportionately enforced, the Times article also reports on a study in Chicago:

Across the country, other kinds of biking regulations have also been found to be enforced in discriminatory ways. 

In Chicago, a study found that tickets were issued to cyclists eight times more often in majority-Black parts of the city. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice found that 73 percent of bicycle stops in Tampa, Fla., between 2014 and 2015 involved Black cyclists, despite the fact that Black people made up 26 percent of the population. 

“The data revealed that the stops did not reduce crime or produce any other positive outcome,” such as reducing bike crashes or injuries, the report said.

So I understand the concern.  Again though, the point shouldn't be to eliminate enforcement but to fix it.  And the basic point is that enforcement activity should be directed to motor vehicle operation, which is far more problematic.

Make traffic safety enforcement part of transportation departments, separate from police departments.  For example, for 15 years or more, I've recommended that traffic safety (and parking) enforcement be removed from police departments and moved to transportation departments.  

The closest place where I know this has been done in San Francisco, although the SFPD "Traffic Company" is still part of the police department, but it is paid for by the Municipal Transportation Agency.  From the webpage: 

The Traffic Company is primarily composed of police officers assigned to motorcycles to provide traffic enforcement, accident investigations and to raise public awareness of traffic-safety measures. The company’s primary mission is to reduce injuries and fatalities and to provide traffic and pedestrian safety through investigations and traffic management. The company’s involvement is key in major citywide events, such as parades and demonstrations, and provides essential services in the event of a major disaster.

Similarly, many transit agencies have dedicated police departments focused on crime suppression and safety on transit systems.  

Note that in this case, equity advocates criticize fare payment enforcement as inequitable ("Decriminalize fare evasion," Institute for Policy Studies).  Again, rather than decriminalize fare evasion, provide discount transit passes for low income riders.

Change criminal justice processes to make motor vehicle operators more responsible for their actions.  Similarly, a major problem with traffic safety is that it privileges motor vehicle operators by making negligence almost completely consequence free, unless the driver is impaired (alcohol or drugs) or super wantonly reckless (e.g., driving faster than 100mph).

The recent rise in driving-related fatalities is mostly due to an increase in reckless driving ("As U.S. traffic deaths rise to highest point since 2007, push for safer streets continues," Staten Island Advance).  WRT this rise, as someone recently pointed out on an e-list I'm on, the design of the road network hasn't changed, so the problem is likely driver behavior.

The recent blog entry, "Revisiting Vision Zero in DC and NYC" (2021) has 11 points, which are all necessary, but failed to include a 12th, reforming criminal justice systems related to traffic safety and enforcement.

Even though they dropped Enforcement from the E's planning framework, ironically, LAB has a Model Vulnerable User Law, which has not been enacted anywhere in the US.

Changing criminal justice practices as they relate to bicyclists, pedestrians, and other "vulnerable users" vis a vis motor vehicles ought to be a key element of what should be re-termed in the E framework as:

• Enforcement and Criminal Justice Systems.

Other "Enforcement" related actions that are necessary:

-- Legalizing the Idaho Stop for bicyclists, which would force a recognition of the need for differentiated laws wrt different types of "traffic"

-- 20 mph speed limits on residential streets

-- While theoretically "pedestrians have the right of way" in practice that's not the case.  This occurred to me a number of years ago, when I was crossing from one side of the street to the other in front of my house, but I waited for a car to cross.  The car should have deferred to me, but I couldn't rely on that happening, so for safety reasons I deferred to the car.

I'm sure there are many others.

Towards a Seven E Framework.  Should be ordered like this:

• Equity
• Encouragement
• Education
• Engagement
• Engineering (infrastructure)
• Enforcement and Criminal Justice Systems
• Evaluation (planning)

Black/African-American History Month and Urban Planning

 Over the years, I've written entries during African American/Black History Month, about the nexus of black history and urban and transportation planning. 

-- "Black History Month and the New Jim Crow," 2020
-- "Two ideas about presentation of African American History in the context of Black History Month," 2020
-- "African American History Month and Urban Planning," 2019

While those pieces hold up well, there's definitely new material.

The boogeyman of critical race theory/"race books"/school boards.  CRT started out as an academic approach to the study of law and American legal institutions, although you can use the same term to refer to the study of racism and segregation as an element of American society ("Before you rage against critical race theory, it might be helpful to know what it is," Seattle Times).

Conservatives have made this a huge issue, and making it out to be something reshaping K-12 education.  There are dozens of efforts in State Legislatures across the country to ban the teaching of CRT ("Why are states banning critical race theory?," Brookings).

There are related efforts to ban books ("Read the Books That Schools Want to Ban," The Atlantic).

And the ability of parents to influence school boards, get books banned (and masking) has been a successful wedge issue, which contributed to the success of Glenn Youngkin winning the Governorship in Virginia last November ("How will fights about race and suburban schools change education politics?," Chalkbeat).

The history of federally imposed housing segregation.  Last year I read  The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.

It's a damning overview of how segregation and discrimination has been "baked in" to US housing policy. 

Reading it, no one can deny the reality of structural racism.

Transit equity.  There is the rise in the number of communities taking an equity lens to government policies and programs, including urban and transportation planning ("Baltimore transit equity study spotlights racial disparities around neighborhoods," Washington Post, "Boston’s fare-free bus pilot program sets the stage for transit equity, advocates say," WGBH/NPR).

Although for some time, transit agencies receiving federal monies were already supposed to be doing this, and they weren't.  That's changed.

Free and discounted transit pricing isa related response.

Team Henry Enterprises is contracted to dismantle the pedestals throughout the city that once held Confederate monuments. The first pedestal, where Matthew F. Maury stood on Monument Avenue, came down Tuesday. Photo by Regina H. Boone

Confederate monuments.  The push to remove Confederate monuments continues ("Monuments as public art, historiography, and change," 2020).  

This has been ongoing, and was discussed in the 2019 entry, but it's more pronounced, including the removal of monuments even of the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia ("Confederate pedestals out," Richmond Free Press).  

And the renaming of streets that have been named after prominent Confederate figures ("3 Charlotte streets officially drop names tied to slavery, Confederacy," WSOC-TV), 

Energy and the environment.  Energy equity is another relevant to Black history and urban planning too.  

-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," 2021

The comments thread includes links to a number of relevant aspects of the issue.

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Philadelphia has just created an equity advisory commission ("Philly names Environmental Justice Advisory Commission to address ‘racially biased and discriminatory policies’," Philadelphia Inquirer).

Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC

In 2013 I was on grand jury duty.  Each jury had a specialization--ours was drugs and guns mostly, but we still dealt with murders, assaults, and other violent crimes.  

The lesson after three months was that DC spends billions of dollars each year--police, emergency services, health and social services, criminal justice, education, etc., in the communities where crime is persistent--just to keep the neighborhoods and people within them at equilibrium/the same--not to improve.

So I started thinking even more about this.  I had been thinking about it plenty, but more in terms of addressing crime:

-- "Crime prevention through environmental design and repeated burglaries at the Naylor Gardens apartment complex," 2013
"The state of "broken windows" versus "problem oriented policing" strategies in 2016: Part 1, theory and practice," 2016
"The state of "broken windows" versus "problem oriented policing" strategies in 2016: Part 2, what to do," 2016

But that wasn't enough.  I had to consider equity planning ("An outline for integrated equity planning: concepts and programs," 2017, "Equity planning: an update," 2020), social urbanism ("Social urbanism and Baltimore," 2019). public investment in place ("Yes, public and nonprofit investments in the city spur further reinvestment and change: is this a bad thing or a complicated thing?," 2019, "Rethinking community planning around maintaining neighborhood civic assets and anchors," 2011) and more focused policing-community partnership initiatives ("Los Angeles police department "Community Safety Partnership"," 2014, expanded as "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisances: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)," 2020).

And I realized that David Barth's concept of an "integrated public realm framework", which I thought about a lot in terms of both transportation and the conceptualization of civic assets as a network, was equally applicable to equity and community revitalization planning.

While I haven't ever combined these writings into a unified position paper, I did talk about it extensively with a campaign worker for Muriel Bowser in 2013 at September's 17th Street Festival when she was running for mayor.  (I talked with the policy analyst, Suzanne talked with Ms. Bowser.)

The recent two part set of articles on what an economic revitalization plan for St. Louis ought to look like goes a long way towards outlining such a concept in practical ways for a city overall or a city with areas of persistent poverty:

-- "St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 1: Overview and Theoretical Foundations," 2021
-- "St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 2: Implementation Approach and Levers," 2021

And wrt "East of the River" there are also these past pieces: 

-- "Wanted: A comprehensive plan for the "Anacostia River corridor"" 2012
-- "DC has a big "Garden Festival" opportunity in the Anacostia River," 2014
-- "Ordinary versus Extraordinary Planning around the rebuilding of the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington DC | Part One: Rearticulating the system of health and wellness care East of the River," 2018
-- "Schools #2: Successful school programs in low income communities and the failure of DC to respond similarly," 2019

(Another idea, not original to me, is to underground DC 295/I-295 ("DC and "city repair" of the urban grid," 2020).  

Photo from Interstate-Guide.

I also suggested when I was briefly affiliated with the now defunct Anacostia River Trust, to create a Trail/River Towns initiative, modeled after the Trail Towns and River Towns programs in Pennsylvania, for the River and the Anacostia River Trail, from DC to Greenbelt Maryland.)

There is a National Park Service map/brochure for the Anacostia River Trail (water and shared use).

My idea, being a place-based initiative, called for creating a "Deputy Mayor for East of the River" although parts of Ward 5, Ward 1, and to some extent Ward 4 have areas of persistent poverty and should've been included in such an initiative also.

(Some cities like Dallas, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia, and Toronto, Ontario have various initiatives that address poverty in focused ways, but definitely more broadly than an almost exclusive focus on jobs.)

I never heard from them again, but imagine my surprise to read about her adoption of this concept, uncredited, in a May 2014 article about the campaign in the New York Times.

When she was elected, she created a Deputy Mayor position, not place-focused as I proposed, but on achieving gainful employment, a "Deputy Mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity," with a focus on creating a "pathway to the middle class."

In contrast to what I proposed, the position wasn't focused on wide-scale community revitalization, more on employment and the Department of Employment Services.  

While this press release touts great success from the position, the reality is that the places of persistent poverty remain economic laggards and crime and the murder rate has increased in these communities.  (When the original appointee was replaced, Mayor Bowser appointed the director of the Department of Child and Family Services to co-hold the Deputy Mayor position, demonstrating the lack of a broader approach.)

Which is the point made today ("Press releases aren’t going to prevent gun violence in D.C.") by Washington Post columnist Colbert King.  He writes that Mayor Bowser keeps introducing initiatives and press releases, but crime keeps rising.  

And despite complaints by Bowser Administration officials that the criminal justice system (in DC, because the city is still overall under control of the federal government, adult crimes are prosecuted by a unit of the federal Department of Justice) is failing to prosecute the perpetrators of violent crimes, the fact is that's not the case, according to data presented in the article.

Reading the comments, I realized that had Mayor Bowser done something more along the lines of what I suggested, the creation of a wide-ranging community revitalization initiative on the scale of social urbanism initiatives like those in Medellin--which have reduced murders by about 90%--likely, even in the face of the pandemic, crime and murders would have dropped, neighborhoods and life circumstances and achievements would have improved.

-- "Experiments in Social Urbanism"
-- "'Social urbanism' experiment breathes new life into Colombia's Medellin Toronto Globe & Mail
-- "Medellín's 'social urbanism' a model for city transformation," Mail & Guardian
-- "Medellín slum gets giant outdoor escalator," Telegraph
-- "Medellín, Colombia offers an unlikely model for urban renaissance," Toronto Star

The problem is that most elected officials aren't particularly visionary--and we have to grant them recognition of the reality that multi-generational poverty is a problem that takes more than a couple of four-year terms as mayor can reverse--and they want to make ideas "their own" -- for example "Deputy Mayor of Greater Economic Opportunity" as opposed to "Deputy Mayor for East of the River" -- usually dumbing down the potential of the initiative in the process.

Or as I wrote in the conclusion of "Social urbanism and Baltimore":

Righting disorder is a process that never ends.  Medellin isn't perfect. The city still is wracked by violence ("Medellin's efforts against crime prove fleeting," Washington Post), but I think the point is that there is never a "state of rest." And in any case, going from 6,391 murders to less than 500 (at one point) is a significant accomplishment.

But it must be recognized that this is an ongoing process, because the forces of disorder are always present, and only by continued investments in public safety, education, and civic assets can the chaos be countered.

May is National Bike Month: Advocating for Vulnerable Road User laws

Pre-pandemic, the biggest activity during National Bike Month tends to be "Bike to Work Day," which when people are working from home, isn't much of a thing.  The past few years I've used Bike Month and BTWD as the opportunity to opine on what I think should be advocacy priorities for biking as transportation.

Vulnerable road user laws, putting more responsibility on motor vehicle operators for crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians should be #1.

Image from "Driver hits and injures four bicyclists in Sarasota County," WINK-TV.

Will calls our attention to the Outside Magazine article, "Killing Cyclists Is As American As Mass Shootings."

To me the issue is more about how the US has set up a legal regime that excuses responsibility for motor vehicle related accidents resulting in injury or death, terming them mistakes that are avoidable usually but negligent, not malicious.

Journalist Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this a couple times in articles in the New Yorker, articles that are more than 15 years old "Wrong Turn" (2001) and "Big and Bad," about the drivers of SUVs (2004).

Only in cases of gross negligence like driving over 100mph or severe impairment from alcohol and drugs, are people tried and may receive jail sentences.  Otherwise, juries aren't inclined to "punish" drivers out of the belief that they could have done the same thing.

Bicyclists are merely collateral damage, as are deaths to pedestrians and other drivers ("Teen Son of LA Multimillionaire Admits to Manslaughter in Fatal High-Speed Lamborghini SUV Crash," NBC Los Angeles).

The Outside article recounts many examples of cyclist deaths.  Even if the specific stories aren't known to us cyclists, who tend to pay attention to such things, the general details are pretty common.  

Driver screws up, cyclist dead, nothing of significance happens to the driver.  

A car is much heavier and faster than a bicyclist (or a pedestrian) so we know how this turns out ("Cyclist deaths: Why you are 17 TIMES likelier to be killed on a bike than in a car," Mirror).

Jim Pagels died because of driver "error."  Photo: David Dildane, WTOP radio.

In DC, just last month, a bicyclist was killed by a negligent driver ("Bicyclist killed in crash tweeted just hours earlier about the danger of riding in D.C.," Washington Post).

Vulnerable road user laws.  The article does mention in a paragraph, something that would change things significantly, but doesn't develop it in detail:

Among the few slender rays of sunshine are so-called vulnerable road user laws (VRUs), promoted by cycling-safety advocates and currently on the books in ten states. VRUs provide stiffer penalties—six-month driver’s-license suspensions, large fines, and even 30-day prison terms, especially for drivers who injure or kill cyclists while breaking traffic laws. But widespread adoption of such laws may already be threatened by weakness in the knees among their very own advocates, some of whom apparently worry that VRUs will only give police new means of oppressing the oppressed.

US motor vehicle operator laws forgive negligence.  VRU laws aim to add some balance, recognizing that because cars are the most powerful vehicles, drivers should take more responsibility for this fact, and face extranormal consequences for their actions.

The Netherlands does this, making as the default charging the driver with responsibility for an accident.  But even in the sustainable mobility dominated Netherlands, it took a few decades before the nation changed its driver responsibility laws in this way.

And the law is more focused on financial consequences of being hurt ("Strict liability in the Netherlands," Bicycle Dutch).  The driver/car insurance is responsible for the costs, if any, imposed on the bicyclist from an accident.  It's not clear that drivers face more severe penalties.  From the article:

When Article 185 WVW is applicable, it means the motor vehicle user is liable for financial damage, unless that driver can prove the incident was caused by circumstances beyond his/her control. That will be hard, because the driver must then prove he/she drove flawless, or that his/her mistake was not the cause of the incident. If the mistake leading to the incident was made by the non-motorised road user, that mistake has to be so unlikely, that a motor vehicle user could not reasonably have considered it to happen. Failing to give way or jumping a red light (deliberately or by mistake) are not such unlikely events, they happen regularly, so drivers are not granted ‘circumstances beyond control’ very often. 

Besides ‘circumstances beyond control’ the driver can also argue the non-motorised road user was at fault. This is only possible for road users from the age of 14. If that road user was indeed at fault, the driver is still liable for 50% of the damage. Dutch law makers considered this to be reasonable, because the non-motorised road user usually suffers more and more severe damage. That warrants this extra legal protection. A protection that is lost when it can be proved the non-motorised road user caused the damage on purpose, or his/her behaviour was so careless, that it can be seen as “recklessness verging on intent”.

But the Netherlands focuses on other elements of the road system as it relates to vulnerable users, prioritizing design treatments, reducing vehicle speeds, etc. in the aim of increasing safety and reducing crashes, injuries, and deaths.

-- "Vulnerable Road Users [in the] Netherlands," presentation, Ministry of Transportation 

The issue is changing policy and practice away from the privileging of the automobile.  At least in those places where pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users are much more prevalent.

-- "A reminder about how the entitlement of automobility is embedded into law and democratizes death by accident," 2014
-- "A "Vision Zero" agenda for DC," 2014
-- "DC and Vision Zero Revisited," 2015
-- "Updating Vision Zero approaches," 2016
-- "First global benchmark for road safety in cities published by International Transport Forum," 2018
-- "A more radical approach to "Vision Zero" is needed: reconstructing streets out of different materials to reduce speeds," 2019

Some of it is financial responsibility, some legal responsibility, and some punishment.

Philadelphia District Attorney primary today

The past blog entry "Philly DA: Independent Lens series, premieres on PBS tonight" calls attention to the PBS Independent Lens series on DA Larry Krasner, who is a leader in the progressive redefinition of local prosecution and its move away from a focus on incarceration.  (Also see "Yard sign, National Crime Victims' Support Week, April 18th-24th, 2021.")

-- "Can a Progressive Prosecutor Survive a 40% Spike in Homicides?," New York Times
-- "Larry Krasner vs. Everybody: Inside the Philly DA’s Crusade to Revolutionize Criminal Justice," Philadelphia Magazine

2017 campaign flyer.

The 7 episode series, showing on Tuesday evenings, is super well done, at least so far.  I frequently criticize documentaries for a constrained and often glib story arc, and that isn't the case here.  And the filming is really really well done.  

It's not being shown in Philadelphia out of fear of it influencing the primary election there, where in the Democratic race, In the election, Larry Krasner is facing a former prosecutor that he fired, Carlos Vega.  

The police union and related groups is out in force against Krasner, blaming him for a rise in murders, although Philadelphia's crime rise is comparable to that of other cities.

The local Democratic Party didn't make an endorsement in the race.  Some elected officials support him, others are quiet, and others support Vega, although Vega has lost some support because some of the anti-Krasner police groups sent out incendiary campaign materials.

The "Philadelphia Story" on criminal justice reform shows it isn't easy.  Some people who get released will go on to do bad things.  Many won't.  

One of the many interesting things from the documentary series is that the DA's office under Krasner has a data analysis team led by a criminologist, Oren Gur, and rather than rely on inferences, they study the issues and make policy recommendations based on data.

Philly DA: Independent Lens series, premieres on PBS tonight

One of the post-Michael Brown/Ferguson, Missouri initiatives has been a focus on local prosecution, and the process of criminal justice at the local level.  

In a number of cities, more "progressive" district/prosecuting attorneys have been elected, to reform the criminal justice prosecution system, to make it "more fair," to address "over policing," to reduce the number of prosecutions for low level crimes, to reduce or eliminate the need for bail, to limit the use of policing and criminal justice as a form of "racialized social control," etc.

-- "The New Reformer DAs," American Prospect
-- "The Facts on Progressive Prosecutors," Center for American Progress
-- "With push for progressive D.A.s, elected prosecutors feel the pressure of a changing profession," Los Angeles Times
-- "The progressive prosecutors blazing a new path for the US justice system," Guardian
-- Prosecutors Alliance, association for progressive DAs

Philadelphia, with the election of Larry Krasner as DA in 2017, has been at the forefront of this change ("Larry Krasner’s Campaign to End Mass Incarceration," New Yorker).

And in cities like Philadelphia, New York City ("New York Tried to Get Rid of Bail. Then the Backlash Came," Politico), and San Francisco, there have been serious hiccups, with people released pending trial going on to commit heinous crimes ("Parolee accused of killing 2 pedestrians in S.F. allegedly stole car from date he met on app," San Francisco Chronicle).

Police unions have been vocal opponents, as was the Trump Administration ("The Trump Justice Department’s war on progressive prosecutors, explained," Vox).

The Independent Lens documentary program is featuring an 8-part look, titled "Philly DA," at the changes in Philadelphia under Krasner, which have been met with a fair amount of controversy and opposition.  It happens that he is up for re-election, and he is facing a primary challenge ("Philly DA Larry Krasner and challenger Carlos Vega enter election homestretch as gun violence surges,").

-- "PBS's Fascinating Philly D.A. Poses a Crucial, Timely Question: Can Our Broken Criminal Justice System Really Be Fixed?," Time Magazine

Like with "defund the police," I think the problem is what we might call an "all or nothing" stance.  The reality is that there is crime, and dangerous people.  

The challenge is to limit "mass incarceration" and the criminalization of people by hoovering them up into the criminal justice system through "gateway" crimes like marijuana use (I personally don't favor marijuana use but think that its criminalization has been incredibly harmful, especially to minorities and minority communities), while still aiming for public safety.

But "no bail," a preference for pre-trial release, decriminalization of certain types of nuisance crimes which do have deleterious impact on specific communities ("After crime plummeted in 2020, Baltimore will stop drug, sex prosecutions," Washington Post) can be problematic.

So far we haven't been able as yet to achieve a middle ground.  I guess you could argue that this is the "teething process" and that the process of change is always difficult and sometimes problematic.