The solution was anathema to that era: get money into the hands of the workers. Because they couldn’t get jobs in bankrupt industries, the solution was to create jobs, even make-work jobs, in order to get money into their hands.

When famed bank robber Willie Sutton was famously asked why he chose such a vocation, he was reported to reply, “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.” This logic holds true for many types of crime: it happens because it is more or less likely based on the opportunity structure. As place is a prime element of that opportunity structure, it

A place-based intervention that leads to the greater desirability of a place—such as the expansion of transit, the greening of small park spaces, or the creating of a business improvement district—could also foster new housing or condominium developments, which would then increase the population in an area. Yet if an area doesn’t have a school syst