Mad City
"70 Square Miles, Surrounded by Reality"
Crime and the Madisonian
November 19, 2007
Since the first Mad City column hit, we at PAI have received a number of positive responses from you, the readers. That's a great start. If you would like to make a comment, you can email the author here. From the comments I've received, what struck a chord with most of you were my thoughts on crime and how things are getting worse.
Crime is a big issue in Madison; it's on the mind of a lot of you out there. Now, as some of you pointed out, crime in Madison is nothing compared with what we see in larger cities, including nearby Milwaukee and Chicago, and the city is positively picturesque compared with cities like Detroit and L.A.
That's true.
The real issue with crime in Madison is that, stick with me, there really shouldn't be an issue. Madison is still a relatively small city, and has an extremely strong economy. Between the state/federal government and the University you have an unadjusted unemployment rate of 3.5 percent for last month. Recent changes to how Madison's unemployment rate have artificially increased this number, as data from surrounding "commuter" townships have been added to the Madison numbers, increasing them. As an aside, you can check those values each month here. If you want a job in Madison, for the most part, you can find one. That job might not be everything your parents hoped for, as is evidenced by the number of PhD taxi drivers we have, but the jobs are there. As a comparison, Detroit's unemployment in the same period is 7.7 percent. The fact remains that the best crime prevention strategy is a job. People who are working full time have obligations they need to meet, a stake in the community, and if they're over 30, not much energy left over to get into trouble any more!
So what's going on? Like most things relating to statistics, the truth of the situation is what you are measuring. The unemployment rate is calculated by taking a combination of numbers from those currently receiving unemployment assistance, and people responding to a survey. Yes, you heard that right: the state and federal government survey people and ask them if they have a job, and if they don't, are they currently looking for work. That's the thing: when you measure unemployment, you're finding people who are either between jobs temporarily but have a history of having a job (which economists will tell you is about two percent of the population), or those who are actively looking for work.
Four groups of people you don't find represented in unemployment statistics are: adolescents (i.e., the childrens!), people who come and go in the community but don't actually live there full time (transients), people who are on public assistance and simply aren't looking for work, and undocumented workers. These people, interestingly enough, are also the largest sources of crime in any community.
So is crime really increasing?
This is another great question people are asking. The answer to that question is, "it depends on where you live." The reason you are hearing about crime in Madison is that it is increasing in neighborhoods where, even ten years ago, it was much lower. That's largely the reason you're seeing this concern: people who have jobs, own their own home, and are trying to make a life for themselves and their families are having to deal with crime. Those sorts of people have a tremendous stake in the community, pay taxes, and are not, as a rule, prone to being quiet and just putting up with the problems.
I grew up on Madison's west side, and it, quite literally, grew with me. As I talked about in last week's column, when I was growing up, I was five minutes from seeing farmers' fields as far as the eye could see. Now, I'm five minutes from thousands of new homes and suburban sprawl. As this development occurred, the new neighborhoods that I grew up in aged. As suburban neighborhoods age, they become more affordable places for people to live, especially in places like Madison, where young homeowners want the new rather than the used.
As some of you will likely point out, that's a tremendous simplification, but remember that I'm specifically talking about suburban development. The older neighborhoods in Madison's central region have become quite the opposite, and are full of expensive older homes as a result. Oddly enough, those neighborhoods are also not having the same issues of crime-but I'm getting ahead of myself there: we'll talk about the older Madison neighborhoods, including the one that our own Mayor Dave lives in, in a future column.
Here's the point: the character of the aging west side of Madison is changing. It's changing because the homes and apartments are aging, and thereby becoming more affordable. As a result of that they're also getting more and more people from those four groups I mentioned earlier living in them: adolescents, transients, those on public assistance, and undocumented/illegal immigrants. Adding to a community more people that are, statistically speaking, more likely to be involved with crime means you get, not surprisingly, more crime.
What does the city say about it? They tell us that, yes, in fact, crime has been increasing. The city, including Mayor Dave and Chief of Police Noble Wray, tell us that crime has increased in the west side neighborhoods by 15% in the last six years and 6% in the last three years. These statistics are a part of the Madison Police Department Neighborhood Response Session presentation. If you'd like to look at it, you can find the presentation here.
That presentation tells a lot about what has happened in Madison in the last several years, and it also tells us a lot about the people who put the presentation together. We'll take a look at it in more detail in next week's column, I Feel Safer Already, along with some solutions. See you in seven days!
And now,once again, for some stories in the news and on the web about Madison...
Dig This Pepper Spray, Daddy-o!
Wherein one Madison man discovers that getting caught up in the moment playing the bongos can get you in trouble with the border patrol.
It's GREAT!
Tony the Tiger has nothing on Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. Take a look at all of the, well, Great Services and see a photo of the event here. One thing I'll say for the county, they don't have much of budget for some things, chief among them being podiums, photography or artwork. A note to the county: ambient fluorescent light does not an impressive photo make.
Mad City: 70 Square Miles, Surrounded by Reality is an ongoing column the antics occuring in Madison, Wisconsin. It is created by PAI's CEO. © PAI 2007.