I have a theory that if you could maintain good job opportunities near any ghetto or slum you would see criminal activity diminish.
Put in different terms, this is what I’m talking about.
In my experience, the opportunities exist and are rejected for any number of reasons.
When I was in high school, my uncle owned a small furniture store in the Haight (San Francisco). I worked there after school and on the weekends for $20 a day, delivering furniture to customers who were often in projects (if anyone knows the history of projects in SF, the Pink Palace and Geneva Towers, along with the projects in Hunters' Point). As I was busting my butt hauling bedroom sets up the stairs (elevators were either broken or a sure thing for a robbery) I'd often get harassed by the teen/early 20's guys who lived in the projects. They'd usually flash big wads of money and laugh about the "white boy" doing hard work.
Now delivering furniture in projects is not a "good job opportunity", but it's honest work. And most of the residents of the projects wanted nothing to do with it. They wanted big money, fast and easy.
