In response to your query on “how people assess their
actions and how places can change so much over time” I think this question is particularly
interesting when regarding a place like Malibu. The testimony you received from
the people you knew reminds me of a study I was made aware of several years
ago.
The study was
carried out in an attempt to prove true a previous idea about city planning.
Before
Juliani, Times Square was considered seedy, sketchy; all of the above. However,
apart from prohibiting window washers (the ones that spray your windshield with
a saliva-windex mixture and ask for money after “cleaning” your car with a
dirty rag) he also put money into rebuilding the surrounding area and patching
up the broken windows and cleaning the graffiti off of the walls. Juliani is
considered one of the main reasons that Times Square is the bustling,
gentrified, artistic and economic district it is today.
The
reason for this change is the result of a commonly employed (but never tested
until the Netherlands test) theory known widely as “Broken Windows Theory.” The
idea is that if there is an area with broken windows, it appears as though no
one cares enough to maintain it, so the space can be desecrated. One day graffiti
appears so the next passerby thinks it’s okay to throw his beer bottle on the
ground and create more broken glass. After a while another person comes along
and sees a broken window, graffiti and garbage lying around and thinks “hey,
might as well spark a bowl.” Ideally this cycle continues until the area has
undergone a comprehensive dergradation and is now riddled with crime.
The
study that was done was in an attempt to prove this theory- Does a cleaner
environment lead to an upkeep of that environment and a dirtier environment
lead to a dirtier one?
The people committing
the study put graffiti on one alleyway with bikes parked in it and another
alley with no graffiti. The bikes had flyers put into their break cables so
that when the owners returned, they had the option of either putting the flyers
in the trash or throwing them on the ground. What they found proved the theory by
showing that the alleyway with the graffiti had far more flyers on the ground
than the one without the graffiti.
It is
thought that Juliani employed this tactic and it is this “dirtying” I believe is
the case with Malibu. The more people move in, the more trash is associated
with it. The more people that want to move in, the more the natural cliff line
is hollowed back to make room for more houses. The more the natural environment
is disrespected, the more it will be disrespected in the future. This I believe
is the cause of such a change.
