Significant policy changes create safer L.A. streets
January 20, 2010 at 12:56 pm | Posted in gangs, neighborhoods, police, prison system | Leave a comment
Tales of released prisoners often include poor recidivism rates or the creation of police informants, but Los Angeles is creating a new narrative about formerly-imprisoned gang members.
A stark contrast from the tensions between the LAPD and local gangs in the early 1990s, police have begun embracing the influence of former gang members, forming a partnership to decrease rumors after violent incidents and mentor younger members. Extending cooperation beyond “informants” is proving beneficial for the South Central community. Both residents and police acknowledge that the area has not seen these levels of safety in over 50 years. Recalling the 90′s, when drive-by shootings were part of everyday life, citizens are embracing the new safety initiatives on behalf of police and ex-offenders alike.
Neighborhood patterns of Netflix rentals
January 9, 2010 at 1:31 pm | Posted in amenities, consumption, geography, NYT, personality, scenes, what to read | 1 CommentThe New York Times has an excellent interactive feature on the distribution of 2009 rentals of particular films across neighborhoods, for New York, Chicago, Boston, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, and a few other cities. For example, in the Hyde Park zip code (site of the University of Chicago), the most rented film in 2009 was Slumdog Millionaire. Yet in 3 of the South Side zip codes that surround it, the most rented film was Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys. MadMen Season 1 made the top 50 in many of the zip codes in Manhattan and in those sections of Brooklyn nearest Manhattan; it was virtually absent in the rest of the metropolitan area. Relationship to Terry Clark’s amenity-based scenes indexes? To the neighborhood distribution of personality types? Long live the spatial sociology of consumption….
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