Broken windows

EVER PROACTIVE and with its focus fixed on becoming a “Habitat for Human Excellence” in the near future, the City of San Fernando has set the groundwork to address the blight of urbanization.
In a recent news report, the city’s own attorney-general – lawyer Ramsey Ocampo, a retired police chief superintendent – pointed to the “growing need for the integration of services aimed at promoting the safety, cleanliness, orderliness and beautification of the city, lifting the standards of this capital city from the alarming stage of decay and deterioration.”
"At present, the city proper does not showcase the city as we envisioned it to be, for just like any other city, it depicts a picture where there is struggle for survival," Ocampo was quoted as saying.
Hence, the birthing of Project Habitat, with its eponymous task force for its implementation in the specific target areas of traffic innovation, jurisdiction over streets and sidewalks, waste management, urban greening and beautification, and some such others.
TF Habitat, Ocampo said, shall employ the "Broken Windows" concept.
For the clueless, “Broken Windows” came from an article of the same title in the March 1982 issue of The Atlantic Monthly written by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which the latter later expanded into full book form.
“Broken Windows” was culled from a passage in the said article, thus:
"Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.
Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars."
Fix the problems as they start, small – and therefore fairly manageable – as they still are, says Kelling. Repair a broken window, so as not to attract vandals to break more.
Kelling’s article indeed finds resonance in any Philippine city.
Allow a small bag of trash to be dumped on an open lot. Soon that lot becomes the garbage dump of the whole neighborhood.
Let a hovel stand on a dry riverbed. Soon a whole shanty town takes over the river bed and the banks as well. Take a good look at the Abacan River in Angeles City and weep.
Permit a shoe shine boy to ply his trade on the sidewalk. Soon all sorts of trade and commerce converge on that sidewalk.
So how fared “Broken Windows” in its full implementation?
The best example here is New York City at the onset of the term of office of Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1993 onwards to its climax in 2001.
The former district attorney who battled New York’s crime syndicates inter-phased “Broken Windows” with “zero tolerance” – a no-nonsense enforcement of laws, and “quality of life” – clean-up drives and community action. Which resulted to the plunge in the crime index for both petty and serious crimes for 10 years straight. Giuliani first carved his niche in the American psyche for having cleaned up New York City of its dregs before becoming the poster boy of strength and determination in presiding over the city’s phoenix-like rise from the devastations of 9-11.
Two immediate impacts of “Broken Windows” were Central Park taken from the grip of criminals and muggers and given back to the New Yorkers and the millions of tourists that flock to it every year, and the transformation of seedy, smutty, 42nd Street from being the mecca of pornography into a chic, family-oriented strip of restaurants and boutiques. I should know. I was there. Solo in 2000, then with the wife in 2006. And immensely enjoyed The Big Apple both times.
“Broken Windows.” As it was with New York City so it would be with the City of San Fernando?
Better believe it. For as it was with Mayor Rudy Giuliani so it shall be with Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez. As they were fired in and formed from the same forge, cut from the same cloth.