I got through the first bit and started looking for page two. Is this some 5th grader's five paragraph essay?

I'll save you the trouble of reading the 600 words (or whatever) and summarize in 8, including repeating the question itself : Why do they build them like that? Crime.

If there were trees between the street and the sidewalk it would make a tremendous difference. I don't think we can blame lack of trees on crime-- it's something else. Maybe it's just that treelessness is what they are used to so it doesn't seem odd anymore.

I agree. The article answers itself in the later part.

Let me help you out a little bit. This is an introduction to a slide-show of photographs, taken by the author who is a renowned photographer. You are supposed to read the introduction and then spend a majority of the time looking at the photographs. The introduction is simply there to provide a little context for the photos. Its purpose is to set-up the contrast between the child-friendly rhetoric and and actual physical reality of daycare and early education facilities in poor, urban America. The day-care providers' "crime" excuse does not mitigate the visible irony of the photographs, nor does it explain why so many are in re-purposed industrial buildings (although the answer to that would probably be "cost.")

slippedvoussoir:

Let me help you out a little bit. This is an introduction to a slide-show of photographs, taken by the author who is a renowned photographer. You are supposed to read the introduction and then spend a majority of the time looking at the photographs. The introduction is simply there to provide a little context for the photos. Its purpose is to set-up the contrast between the child-friendly rhetoric and and actual physical reality of daycare and early education facilities in poor, urban America. The day-care providers' "crime" excuse does not mitigate the visible irony of the photographs, nor does it explain why so many are in re-purposed industrial buildings (although the answer to that would probably be "cost.")

the slide show is a bunch of pictures of buildings in bad neighborhoods. Woo hoo. I lived in Philly for several years, and these pics just look like businesses in North Philly. There's nothing enlightening in them that the picture in the article didn't show.

What did YOU find so profound about the slideshow?

Here's a clue for you: In poor neighborhoods, people steal. They make buildings theft-resistant. That doesn't mean that the people inside don't care about children, or that the "physical reality" of daycare there is any different than anywhere else. Judging a daycare by the outside of the building is -- judging a book by its cover? Not a good article, or slideshow for that matter.

capitolhillmom:

If there were trees between the street and the sidewalk it would make a tremendous difference. I don't think we can blame lack of trees on crime-- it's something else. Maybe it's just that treelessness is what they are used to so it doesn't seem odd anymore.

You can only plant trees in places where people will leave them alone and let them grow: ie, in areas where windows aren't routinely broken out and graffiti doesn't cover every surface. Somebody would cut them down within the first couple days either to burn as fuel or use as a club.

I agree there wasn't much compelling about the pictures. What WOULD have been compelling is a picture of the outside of a building vs. the inside. Having placed my children in daycares in three different states now, I can tell you sometimes daycares with great exterior facilities offer pretty bad programs.

Eh, you'd be amazed at what crime can keep you from having in a neighborhood- people might use trees to climb in windows. Or they might fall out of them and sue someone. Or set them on fire. My husband grew up in the projects- one of his childhood memories was falling out of a 2nd floor window and landing in a cactus garden. We asked why there was a cactus garden under the window. He said it was a 'project flower bed'. Apparently, cactus gardens under windows are a bit of a security system in the projects. Keeps people away from the windows. They razed those projects a few years ago, so they could build a prettier, new project. I guess the crime and urban blight are actually caused by the ugly buildings. What the ghetto needs is a cosmetic overhaul. I hear that neighborhood is much safer now that the projects have better architecture.

I remember reading that too, years ago, to plant things that were very painful around your house to discourage people from breaking in -- presumably if it was easier they'd rob your neighbor instead.