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Unmaintained vacant land in urban areas is associated with a number of negative outcomes for residents of urban areas, including mental and physical health, safety, and quality of life. Community programs which promote land parcel maintenance in urban neighborhoods have been found to reverse some of the effects that unmaintained land has on nearby residents. We explored how land parcel maintenance is associated with mental health outcomes using data collected in Flint, MI in 2017-2018. Trained observers assessed the maintenance of approximately 7200 land parcels and surveyed 691 residents (57% Female, 53% Black, M age = 51). We aggregated resident and parcel rating data to 463 street segments and compared three structural equation models (SEM) to estimate the mediating effects of fear of crime on the association of parcel qualities on mental distress for residents. We found that fear of crime mediated the association between parcel maintenance values and mental distress indicating that poor maintenance predicted more fear of crime which was associated with mental distress. Our findings add to our understanding about the mechanism by which vacant lot improvements may operate to enhance psychological well-being of residents who live on streets with vacant and unkept lots., (© Society for Community Research and Action 2021.)

There is increasing evidence that place-based interventions reduce crime and interpersonal violence in urban settings. However, evidence concerning the impacts of these neighborhood interventions on domestic crime (crime between intimate partners, family, or household members) is inconclusive. We used data from a New Orleans, Louisiana, place-based blighted property remediation intervention to test the hypothesis that the intervention was associated with changes in domestic crime. Because there is evidence that alcohol availability is related to domestic crime, we also assessed whether this association was moderated by alcohol outlet density. We assessed overall associations using a difference-in-difference approach and assessed moderation using a triple-difference approach. The analytic sample consisted of 204 remediated lots and 612 non-remediated matched control lots over 84 months (2011-2017), for a total of 68,544 lot-months. In difference-in-differences analyses, the place-based intervention was associated with additional domestic crime incidence (β = 0.311, 95% CI: 0.016, 0.605; p = 0.039). In triple-difference analyses, on-premise bar density modified this association (β = -0.119, 95%CI: -0.147, -0.092; p < 0.001): in areas with higher bar density, increases in domestic crime were lower near remediated lots compared with control lots. Place-based interventions to reduce blighted properties may have contributed to fewer domestic crime incidents in areas with more bars., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused damage in New Orleans, Louisiana, and much of the land in low-resource neighborhoods became vacant and blighted. In 2014, New Orleans launched a program, Fight the Blight, which remediated properties in 6 neighborhoods. Our objective was to examine changes in crime rates near lots that were remediated (ie, debris removed and vegetation mowed)., Methods: We used a quasi-experimental design to test whether crime rates changed from preremediation (January 2013-October 2014) to postremediation (July 2016-March 2017) near 204 vacant lots that were remediated compared with 560 control vacant lots that were not remediated between October 2014 and July 2016. We also examined differences between remediated lots that received 1 treatment (n = 64) and those that received ≥2 treatments (n = 140)., Results: We found no significant differences between remediated and control lots in levels of violent, property, and domestic crimes from preremediation to postremediation. However, the number of drug crimes per square mile decreased significantly near all remediated lots (5.7% lower; P < .001) compared with control lots, largely driven by the significant decrease (6.4% lower; P < .001) in drug crimes found near lots that received ≥2 treatments., Conclusions: Investing in programs that improve neighborhood environments affected by high rates of physical disorder and vacancy may be a way to decrease violence. However, routine remediation may be needed to increase the public health impact of blight abatement programs in warmer climates, where weeds and vegetation grow rapidly.

Vacant and blighted urban land is a widespread and potentially risky environmental condition encountered by millions of people on a daily basis. About 15% of the land in US cities is deemed vacant or abandoned, an area roughly the size of Switzerland. In a citywide cluster randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effects of standardized, reproducible interventions that restore vacant land on the commission of violence, crime, and the perceptions of fear and safety. Quantitative and ethnographic analyses were included in a mixed-methods approach to more fully test and explicate our findings. A total of 541 randomly sampled vacant lots were randomly assigned into treatment and control study arms; outcomes from police and 445 randomly sampled participants were analyzed over a 38-month study period. Participants living near treated vacant lots reported significantly reduced perceptions of crime (-36.8%, P < 0.05), vandalism (-39.3%, P < 0.05), and safety concerns when going outside their homes (-57.8%, P < 0.05), as well as significantly increased use of outside spaces for relaxing and socializing (75.7%, P < 0.01). Significant reductions in crime overall (-13.3%, P < 0.01), gun violence (-29.1%, P < 0.001), burglary (-21.9%, P < 0.001), and nuisances (-30.3%, P < 0.05) were also found after the treatment of vacant lots in neighborhoods below the poverty line. Blighted and vacant urban land affects people's perceptions of safety, and their actual, physical safety. Restoration of this land can be an effective and scalable infrastructure intervention for gun violence, crime, and fear in urban neighborhoods., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

Violence is a widespread problem that affects the physical, mental, and social health of individuals and communities. Violence comes with an immense economic cost to its victims and society at large. Although violence interventions have traditionally targeted individuals, changes to the built environment in places where violence occurs show promise as practical, sustainable, and high-impact preventive measures. This review examines studies that use quasi-experimental or experimental designs to compare violence outcomes for treatment and control groups before and after a change is implemented in the built environment. The most consistent evidence exists in the realm of housing and blight remediation of buildings and land. Some evidence suggests that reducing alcohol availability, improving street connectivity, and providing green housing environments can reduce violent crimes. Finally, studies suggest that neither transit changes nor school openings affect community violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some volunteers, neighborhood safety is one of the reasons for becoming involved in community greening. For example, many volunteers of the Community Greenspace program at the Urban Resources Initiative in New Haven, Connecticut believe that there is a potential reduction in crime from community greening activities, even though it is not an explicit goal of the program. These types of community-led interventions are distinct from both existing tree canopy and large-scale municipally led initiatives. These types of interventions remain understudied with respect to the potential for reducing crime. We therefore used a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences (DID) approach to test whether more than a decade of street tree planting (1996–2007) in New Haven had an effect on crime levels at planting sites (n = 300) compared to control sites that received no Community Greenspace-planted trees (n = 893). We examined violent, property, and misdemeanor crimes (comprised of vandalism, prostitution, and narcotics crimes) individually and jointly to test for crime-type specific effects, while controlling for sociodemographic factors and spatio-temporal trends. In general, we found a null relationship between trees planted and crime on block faces per year at the p < 0.05 level. Increases in crime were not observed on treatment sites. We discuss implications for tree inventories and monitoring, study design, and techniques to assess impacts of tree planting efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological impact of invasive tree pests is increasing worldwide. However, invasive tree pests may also have significant social costs. We investigated the association between the emerald ash borer (EAB)—an invasive tree pest first discovered in the US in 2002—and crime in Cincinnati, Ohio. We used a natural experimental approach, and compared crime (in 11 classes) on census block groups infested with EAB with crime on block groups not infested with EAB between 2005 and 2014. We accounted for demographic and biological differences between infested and un-infested block groups using propensity-score weighting. EAB infestation was significantly and positively associated with relative increases in crime in all but four crime categories. Our results suggest that invasive tree pests may be associated with social costs worth considering when managing invasive species. By extension, healthy trees may provide significant social benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. We investigated the health and safety effects of urban green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) installments. Methods. We conducted a difference-in-differences analysis of the effects of GSI installments on health (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol and stress levels) and safety (e.g., felonies, nuisance and property crimes, narcotics crimes) outcomes from 2000 to 2012 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We used mixed-effects regression models to compare differences in pre- and post-treatment measures of outcomes for treatment sites (n = 52) and randomly chosen, matched control sites (n = 186) within multiple geographic extents surrounding GSI sites. Results. Regression-adjusted models showed consistent and statistically significant reductions in narcotics possession (18%–27% less) within 16th-mile, quarter-mile, half-mile (P < .001), and eighth-mile (P < .01) distances from treatment sites and at the census tract level (P < .01). Narcotics manufacture and burglaries were also significantly reduced at multiple scales. Non-significant reductions in homicides, assaults, thefts, public drunkenness, and narcotics sales were associated with GSI installation in at least 1 geographic extent. Conclusions. Health and safety considerations should be included in future assessments of GSI programs. Subsequent studies should assess mechanisms of this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]