Richard-
Has anyone considered that people NEED SPACE to be happy? I believe that any time you stack people like cord wood in these “housing developments” which were a Democratic construct, and you don’t give them living room/space it’s natural to push off.
There are numerous very crowded cities throughout the world–Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo to name but a few–that don’t have anywhere near the crime rate of a city like Atlanta, which at less than 10/acre is more of a suburb than a traditional city (Hong Kong is about 10,000/acre). Most of the worst neighborhoods in Atlanta have mainly single family homes on 1/4 acre lots, which would be enough for a 7 story walkup in Paris. Similar things can be said of other American cities like Detroit and LA. In fact, there’s a theory in urban planning, usually referred to as “eyes on the street”, that claims that crime on a street decreases as the number of legitimate people and activities there increases. That would explain also why New York has a comparatively low crime rate compared to less dense American cities.
Someone with more time than me might explore the idea that density actually affects crime rates by changing the demographic mix. Put simply, single family residences tend to include children, regardless of the actual quality of the family, and the young male ones tend to contribute most to crime stats; meanwhile, denser urban cores tend to attract childless young professionals, homosexuals, and empty nesters more and more.
