Strategy: Community Beautification

Abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and unused parks signal neighborhoods in disarray and attract criminal activity. In such areas, residents tend to avoid problem neighborhoods, especially at night, out of fear of victimization. Beautification and restoration efforts can help address such safety and economic concerns. The beautification strategy includes (1) organizing property owners and lessees, police, zoning office representatives, leaders of the larger community, and other interested parties to discuss the locations in need of beautification; (2) defining the problem or target property or area needing beautification and recruiting those willing to work on it; (3) setting the beautification goal (simple trash cleanup or enhancement of the public area with landscaping, lighting, etc); (4) gathering available resources (volunteers or city staff, money for materials, equipment, landscape shrubbery, etc.) from the municipality, property owners, and tenants, or in-kind support from local businesses and community organizations; and, (5) keeping the group together for other beautification activities.

The goal of beautification and restoration projects is to restore neighborhoods and communities in order to prevent criminal activity and encourage community engagement.

Community beautification raises community and individual pride, and often brings a community closer together for common activities, with noticeable crime reduction effects. In one example, Pond Street in New Haven, Connecticut, suffered from the presence of illegal drug sales, trash, loiterers, and noise complaints from residents. The Block Watch resolved to take back some of its territory by planting flowers along curbsides and in a blighted lot on the corner. With 100 percent participation of their group, they turned the neighborhood into a beautiful garden. Other cleanups and beautification seemed to flow naturally. The beautification idea has now spread to nearby streets. Besides the visual benefits of beautification, crime has receded.