user: Q:
We have to stop treating poor neighbourhoods as 'no go' zones
It was 1am when I was asked to go into a stranger's apartment in a building the police had identified as a gang stronghold. The gentleman, who I had met half an hour before at the corner bodega, wanted to show me something. He wouldn't say what. I climbed the dark stairwell, walked down the hallway, made alive by flickering fluorescent lights, and into his apartment.

He took me into his living room and shined a flashlight on the wall, highlighting a painting. "You're an artist, what do you think? I did it a few years ago." We spent the next half hour in his kitchen, sipping beers and talking art.

A question I hear often from those who view my photographs highlighting addiction in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx is, "How do you stay safe? Have you been attacked? Please be careful." It's well intentioned, but it also displays a fundamental misunderstanding of the neighborhoods I work in.

Hunts Point by many metrics is awful. It's the precinct in New York with one of the highest levels of violent crime per capita. It's one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States. The average annual family income is $16,000.

In my three years working in the neighborhood, often until 3am, I have never been attacked or hurt. I have been treated no differently than I have been in wealthy neighborhoods.

To walk into a neighborhood, to meet a new person, and be afraid based on looks alone, is presumptuous and insulting: it's personal racial profiling. It happens all the time to the residence of poor neighborhoods who are often viewed as "thugs" by outsiders and, more sadly, the police.

Personal racial profiling happens both ways, of course, to the benefit of my safety. I have been told I am a typecast for a New York police detective: tall, white, puffy, and with a forward personality. When I get called "Officer" I respond with a big smile and say, "that's racial profiling. I don't presume you are a drug dealer just cause you're black." That always gets a laugh, and understanding. Still, being white, I win the expectation game. A sad reality.

Fear of safety in poor neighborhoods also comes from a misunderstanding of statistics. Consider the data: in Hunts Point in 2012 there were eight murders, 12 rapes, 516 felony assaults (pdf). This is out of a population of 52,000. Roughly 1% of the population suffered a violent offense, or one in a hundred.

In wealthy neighborhoods, like where I live, those numbers are much smaller, with the rates 10 to 30 times as low, on the order of one in a thousand to one in three thousand.

Let's look at it the reverse way: make the simple assumption that for each victim, there is a different assailant who is part of that neighborhood. Where I live roughly 99.7% of the people are playing by the rules. In Hunts Point it is still something like 97% of the people. The overwhelming majority are still decent folks looking out for each other.

And it's actually much better than that. Many crimes are the result of the same person or group of people. The percentage of the population who have ill intent is much smaller.

In addition, much of the crime in poor neighborhoods is conflict resolution between parties operating in the black market. It's a self-imposed legal structure. If you stay out of their business, and I am not buying or selling drugs or sex, then you are far safer than the statistics allude.

Poverty increases reported crime. That should surprise no one. The wealthy, such as myself, often throw money at our problems, via lawyers. That's how our society has been structured: more money, better access to problem solving. The culture of poverty is often, by its very definition, missing that route of legal recourse. Take away one tool, replace it with another.

Misplaced fear of poor neighborhoods only makes things worse, magnifying and perpetuating the problems. It keeps resources away. Businesses shy away, schools suffer as teacher's request "better" postings, etc. It has also brought about inappropriate policy response, a lockdown by the police. It all ends up leading to unfair stereotypes about the residents.

It's unfortunate. The Bronx has as rich of a culture as I have seen in New York. Fear has kept most New Yorkers (not to mention tourists) from seeing that. It leads to the ugly belief that if a neighborhood is poor, or rough, that it does not have a culture worth understanding or saving.

The 97% or so of the residents who are just playing by the rules and trying to get by suffer the most, from both the crime and then from society's overreaction.

Crime is awful, but the resulting fear it has spawned is just as bad.
What was this article about?
A:
Chris Arnade: Misplaced fear of low income communities only makes things worse, perpetuating the problems and keeping resources away
Q:
The Best Watches of 2016
Q: The year is almost over, so let’s cut to the chase—what do you think were the best watches of 2016?

A: That’s not easy to answer. If you count smart and quartz models, thousands of watches, with very different functions and purposes, entered the market in 2016. How do you compare sports watches, which typically feature chronographs, with time-only dress watches?

In making my picks, I relied on highly subjective criteria....
What was this article about?
A:


assistant: Horological expert Michael Clerizo chooses the watches that most impressed him this past year—from Rolex, Chopard and Parmigiani Fleurier. Plus: five honorable mentions.